PMD Worldforged Exile
by The One and Only Tolerance
Summary: In a world without humans, Pokémon have created a society for themselves. One night, an eevee named Vanilla finds himself lost and confused after being chased from his home by mysterious forces. After befriending a local calling herself Chocola, Vanilla must discover, what happened to his family, and more importantly, how he can help them.
1. Vanilla's Nightmare

In a time lost to legend, the land of Exile found itself separated from the outside world. Finding themselves separated from the human realm, powerful pokemon fought freely for control of territory and the evolution stones they needed to increase their power.

Not much could be done to stop them since, without human intervention, evolution had become rare. Stones containing the energy necessary to evolve became increasingly sought-after treasures. This constant power struggle between pokemon lasted until the discovery of the Legendary Evolution Stone.

Discovered by a group of eevee and their evolutions, the Legendary Evolution Stone could be used to evolve any pokemon capable of evolution, and unlike the normal stones, it never seemed to run out of energy. Power struggles continued for a time, but the eevee families now possessed the ultimate tool with which to quell the opposition.

Eventually, they were the only significant power left, and the Eevolution Council was formed. The battles of legend became as rare as the stones used to promote them, and pokemon of every type, regardless of their numbers, now had a voice in the goings on of their home. Since then, the lands of Exile have only known peace.

Until now…

* * *

Vanilla collapsed in what he suspected was some sort of meadow. Even if there was enough light for him to see, he doubted he'd know where he was at the moment, he'd been running for so long. Raised as a family member of one of the Convocity Council houses, he'd never really ran, well, anywhere before.

Running was hard, he'd learned over the course of the night. Through his panted breath and pounding heartbeat, he'd eventually heard the sound of running water somewhere nearby. Suddenly noticing how exceptionally parched he was, the eevee made the effort to peel himself off of the ground. To his recollection, he'd never really been thirsty before either. Somehow, it was worse than the running.

Quickly finding the nearby stream, even in the darkness, Vanilla solved at least one of his problems.

Seemingly unable to hold himself up any longer, the eevee finally had time to think. What happened? The last thing he remembered was his mom waking him up in a panic.

"…come one, Sweetie, please wake up."

"Mom?" Vanilla said, rubbing his eyes to bring the image of his mother into focus.

"Oh, thank Arceus! Come on Vanilla, we need to hurry. The older eevee said in a worried tone.

"Wha-what's going on," Vanilla replied, the sleepiness still stubbornly fighting his against wakefulness.

Cream's ears swiveled around at something in the distance. "I'll tell you later, Dear, but for now, I just need you to follow me, okay?"

Now he could hear it too, someone was shouting at something in the compound courtyard. "O-okay." Vanilla responded, noticing for the first time, that it was far too bright outside. The smell of smoke was growing stronger.

"Shoot, I'd hoped we'd have more time…" Cream whispered to herself as she led her son down the various corridors. She carefully stopped at every intersection, keeping an ear out for whatever, or whomever, was causing the ruckus.

It hadn't been long before the commotion grew louder, its source fast approaching. "Quickly, this way." She motioned towards the younger eevee.

Sliding into one of the servant passages, Cream carefully counted her steps. Finding what she was looking for, she pushed on one of the rocks in the wall, revealing a secret, unlit passage. "Quickly, dear." She ordered, moving out of the way so that Vanilla could pass.

Entering the creepy tunnel, Vanilla turned around to wait for his mom, but before he could do so, he witnessed the tunnel dim drastically. His mother was closing the passage behind him.

"Mom? Mom! What are you-?"

Cream put a paw up to her muzzle. "Shush, Dear. Please be quiet and listen. I can't let them find you, I can't- Listen, Vanilla, I need you to promise you'll do one very important thing for me. Can you do that?"

"Of course, Mom! I'll do whatever you want, just-!"

"Then run, Vanilla. I need you to run and get as far away from here as you can."

"-but…"

"I'm sorry, Vanilla, my Little Prince. I can't come with you," Cream said as she sealed the entryway shut, "this is the only way I can keep them away long enough for you to escape. Now go, keep your promise!"

Even through the brick, he could hear his mother crying.

Vanilla ran.

* * *

Hot tears poured from his eyes at the memory, burning his cheeks. Vanilla had kept his promise until he could run no more. What more could he have done? What had happened to his family? His mother?

Mercifully, before any more thoughts could form, his fatigue had finally wrested control over his consciousness, dragging him into a restless slumber.


	2. Chocola's Discovery

"The wild zorua tenaciously stalks its prey…" Chocola whispered to herself in a mock accent as she wiggled into a pouncing stance. Just as her target reached an opportune position along the path, she leapt from her hiding spot in the bushes. "Sneak attack!"

The startled rattata threw his package into the air with a shout.

"Hehehe! Got you!" Chocola said proudly, catching the falling package before it could hit the ground.

Calming down from his fright, the rattata berated her, "How many times do I have to tell you not to do stuff like that! It's bad enough that I've gotta fix up the southern warren entrance, I don't want to have to deal with your shenanigans too!" he finished, before simply taking his package and storming off in a puff.

"Oh, come on Cheddar, don't be mad! It was just a game!" The zorua shouted after him as he hastily retreated down the path, package in tow. Her ears drooped a little at being ignored while the angry rattata disappeared into the distance.

What was she supposed to do for fun now? "Hmm. Go back home and finish my chores? Hehe, not likely..." The day was simply too nice to waste on chores, after all. Skipping along the path, Chocola wandered towards one of her favorite hiding places.

'If only the floette would stop chasing her away from their garden, then it would be the perfect hiding spot. Those guys sure were picky about their flowers.' the zorua thought to herself.

As she made her way towards the glade, Chocola found it in complete disarray. It wasn't long before she found the culprit lying amid the debris.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing!" She shouted. "Do you want to get in trouble for messing up the place?"

The prone eevee didn't respond.

"Hey! Listen-" Chocola started, prodding the pokemon in the side.

Groggily, the eevee glanced up at his accuser. Eyes still blurry from sleep, all he saw was a dark menacing blob hanging over him.

Coupled with the events from the night prior, instincts took over and Vanilla found himself tucked into a ball, cowering. "P-p-please don't eat me!" he protested.

Chocola rolled her eyes. Why did so many pokemon believe that someone actually wanted to eat them in this day and age? She noticed that the eevee was still cowering in fear. Sighing in resignation, she used her special ability, taking on the form of eevee herself, albeit with a few creative alterations. After all, seeing a mirror image of oneself standing before them would likely do the opposite of calming them down.

"Calm down. Do I look like someone who's about to eat you." She said, trying her best to sound soothing.

It must have worked because she found the eevee peaking out from behind his tail. "Oh..." He sniffed, wiping away the fresh tears. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to accuse you of anything, it's just that, well, um… I didn't-" Seeing the eevee before him clearly for the first time, Vanilla's sentence ended before he could finish it.

"Oookay…" Chocola stated, raising an eyebrow. She'd never gotten that reaction from one of her illusions before. "Right. I was just trying to let you know that the floette are going to be mad that you've destroyed their garden. They're very protective of it.

"What!?" Vanilla shouted, refocusing on his surrounding in daylight for the first time. If he'd really trudged through this glade last night, and there wasn't a reason to believe otherwise, he'd really done a number on it. "Oh no, what do we do? I can't get in trouble for this, not now!" Was it just his imagination or was he hearing a mob of floette gathering in the trees to take him down?

Chocola thought of a new plan. "So, you don't want to get in trouble, is that it?"

"Yes, of course!"

"Hehehe. Then the answer is simple!"

Vanilla just turned his head to the side questioningly.

"We run!" Chocola said before darting off through the underbrush, giggling all the way.

Sitting stunned for a moment, Vanilla's thought process caught up to what just happened. Shaking his confusion off, he chased after the mysterious eevee.


	3. Mystery Dungeon

"Where… Are… We… Going…?" the still-sore eevee asked through panted breaths.

"Oh, um. Right. I guess this is far enough to escape the floette, but we've only got a little farther to go to get where we're headed."

"Can we slow down a bit, miss? Oh! My apologies on skipping formalities miss, my name is Vanilla."

The disguised zorua stopped in her tracks and eyed Vanilla, "You're an odd one aren't you?"

"Excuse me? I'm not sure I follow."

"You're awfully polite is what I'm saying. Not too many of those around here. My name's Chocola, by the way. Nice to meet you!"

"Oh, yes. It's nice to meet you, Chocola. I appreciate the help back there. I wasn't aware that floette were so protective of their territory."

"Well, of their flowers anyway. They are going to be _so_ mad when they see the mess you made!" Chocola teased.

"I didn't mean to, I swear. I was just tired and, and…"

"Hey, don't worry about it. I believe you. Besides, I don't want to talk about boring stuff when we've arrived!" Chocola said in a sing-song voice, stopping just in front of the mouth of a dark cavern. Even with the morning sun pouring down the shaft, it was difficult to see more than a few steps inside.

Vanilla sniffed the damp, stale air. Some unknown substance permeated the place. "What is it we hope to accomplish here?"

"Looking for shinies."

"I don't follow, what is a 'shinies'?"

"Oh you sad, little eevee… How I envy the thought of learning of the shinies. Shinies, you see, are the most important things in life. Treasures of the shiniest shine. Magnificent in their shape and texture. In the right paws, shinies are power!"

"So a shiny is a type of legendary evolution stone?" Vanilla asked, slightly confused.

"Yes! Well, no, actually. I've never even found a regular evolution stone, let alone a legendary one. Those are super rare."

"But you're sure there are some in here?"

"Nope. But that's why we're looking!" Chocola squealed before hopping into the darkness.

Vanilla approached the void as if it were some deadly creature eager to nip at his extremities. "And you're sure this is safe."

"Hah, no. That's what makes it fun! Now come on, it gets easier to see once you're inside."

"If you say so…" Vanilla said worriedly.

Following Chocola's footsteps and the constant drip that emanated from some deeper locale, Vanilla pressed on. It really wasn't so bad once his eyes adjusted, even if it was still rather difficult to see more than a few paces.

"So how does one find these shinies? What do they look like?" Vanilla asked.

Chocola responded by quickly pouncing on the eevee, holding her paw to his muzzle. "Shhhh… For starters, we gotta be quiet if we don't wanna wake anything up. As for what they look like, you'll just know it when you see one." She whispered to him in a hushed tone.

'Wake who, or what, up? I thought she said this place was safe…' Vanilla thought worriedly, wisely keeping his ponderings to himself.

As they pressed on, the sound of dripping water grew louder. Its source became evident soon enough, as a shaft of light pierced through the ceiling up above, pouring into the same underground lake as the dripping water. Pools of light cascaded off of the rippling surface in smooth arcs that illuminated the roof of the cave.

What they saw first made the pair stop in their tracks, littered around the ceiling were tiny little crystals that seemed to capture and reflect the paltry light and turn it into something truly amazing as the little beams glittered in every direction.

Vanilla was the first to break out of his reverie. "Are these the shinies?"

"Oh, yeah, sort of. You know what they say, you can only find shinies where you see them, after all." Chocola whispered back.

"Do they say that? Who says that?"

"Just shush and help me dig. Jeez, you don't have to get all philosophical on me, even in the shiniest cave ever."

As they got to digging around the surprisingly soft cave floor, it became evident that they weren't the first prospectors to churn around the earth in the cave.

"Darn digletts beat me here again…" Chocola said a little dejectedly.

"But don't they live in places like this?"

"Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean the get to steal my treasures…" she retorted in a huff.

Just as Vanilla was about to claim the endeavor a wash and pull himself out from his self-dug hole, his back paw caught on something hard. For the second time today, he found himself with a face full of dirt. "Ow!"

"Hey, are you okay?" Chocola said as she wandered over from her own hole.

"I think so, I just tripped over a rock or something. Must have knocked it loose during the excavation." Vanilla reported, checking his paw for injuries. He honestly couldn't remember the last time he was this dirty. Now that he was thinking about it, he'd never really _been_ dirty before.

Ignoring, entirely, the dirt and how much of it must have been covering herself, Chocola jumped into the eevee's pit. The only thing that alerted him to the action was a fit of giggling.

"Um, are you-"

"You found a shiny!" The disguised zorua shouted in excitement.

Before Vanilla could question his own good fortune with a, "What, really?" the sounds of thousands of wing-beats filled the cave. The shout had awakened some of the cave's inhabitants.

"Zubat! Run!" Chocola shouted before pushing the stone out of the hole and picking it up with her mouth.

She'd already darted past Vanilla before he registered what zubat had to do with anything. Suddenly remembering that loud noises might wake something up, and that something was probably living in this cave, _and_ that zubat live in caves, he quickly chased after the vixen.


	4. Lunchtime with Reiga

Nearly out of breath, Vanilla burst through the bastion of safety that was provided my the mid-day sun. Despite being chased out of a second location today, he had to admit that he was enjoying himself a little. If it wasn't for the events of the night prior, he might even admit that he was having fun.

"Haha! Take that, Umbral Cave! Your shinies are mine now!" Chocola declared defiantly once it was clear that the other pokemon didn't intend to pursue them any further.

"So what did you get?"

"Let's get a closer look, shall we?" Chocola said as she sat down in front of her prize.

Vanilla eyed the time-smoothed piece of obsidian-looking stone. "It's some sort of rock?"

"Hmm, it did look shinier in the dark… Oh! I know!" She said, picking up the stone in her front paws before holding it up to the sun. The light that managed to pass through it was distorted, making all sorts of random shapes as she shifted the stone about. "Aha, it is a shiny! I knew it!"

"Wow, I didn't know that rocks could do that!" Vanilla said as he observed what he could from behind Chocola.

"Well, it's no evolutionary stone, but it's still a pretty good find for a rookie." The vixen said as she handed the precious stone to Vanilla. "Here, you try."

"Thanks!" Vanilla took his turn at tumbling the stone about in the sunlight. To say that the shapes produced were interesting was an understatement. Every twist and turn seemed to produce new variations. When the eevee was finished, he attempted to give the stone back to Chocola.

She refused. "Hehe. You found it, you get to keep it. Those are the rules!" She stated matter-of-factly.

"Really? Are you sure?"

"Yeah! I have tons of these at home." She declared. Now that things had slowed down, though, the time they had needed to catch their breath had passed. "So? Now, what do we want to-"

Chocola was interrupted by the sound of a stomach growling. Thankfully it was coming from Vanilla and not something waiting beyond the mouth of the cave.

"Guess that answers that question. It's time for lunch! Do you have to go home for that?" Chocola inquired.

Vanilla honestly didn't know the answer to the question. Could he even go home? And if not, what was he going to do for food? He didn't have the first clue how to forage for things. What about shelter? What about-

Chocola was waving her paw in front of Vanilla, trying to get him to snap out of his daze. "Hello? You still there?"

"Yes…" Vanilla stated, shaking his mind back into focus. "Sorry about that. I don't really know what I'm supposed to do for lunch."

"Really? That's weird…" Chocola said as she raised a curious eyebrow. "Well, whatever… Wait! I know. You can have lunch with me! I'm sure Reiga can make you something. Come on!" She finished, darting down the hill only far enough to coax the eevee into following.

As Vanilla quickly caught up, they started down the hill at a more reasonable pace. "That would be wonderful, thank you."

"Hehe. Don't mention it."

Vanilla just smiled.

"No, I'm serious. I have a reputation to uphold."

After a fit of lighthearted laughter, Vanilla returned to the conversation. "So, is Reiga your mom?"

"What? No. Reiga is Reiga. She helps out when daddy leaves on his travels."

The name sounded familiar to him, but Vanilla couldn't place it.

"Yep. Daddy's always going around and helping other pokemon, so he's kind of important. What about your parents. What do they do?"

Vanilla noticed that she didn't mention her mom. He doubted he would ever _not_ want to mention his own mother, regardless of circumstance, but after the events of the night prior, he wasn't sure what he should say. "I don't really get to see my dad much either," Vanilla admitted, figuring he could at least reveal that much. "But my mom, she's always… She's-" Vanilla stopped, fresh tears rolled off of his cheek.

Chocola turned to the eevee. Seeing the state he was in brought up a bunch of questions, but digging too deep too soon wouldn't help anyone much. At least that's what her father would say, she thought. "Look, if you don't want to talk about it, don't. I'll understand."

"R-really."

"Yep. Everyone's got reasons for doing, or not doing, stuff. Why should talking be any different? Besides, I'll get into trouble if anyone thinks I made you cry. So just take a deep breath and forget about it."

He wasn't sure how breathing deeply would help, but Vanilla did as he was instructed. Soon enough, though, he calmed down a bit.

"See? That's better. Now come on! I can almost taste those snacks already!"

* * *

Thankfully, the walk back to Chocola's house was both short and not fraught with danger. The house itself was built into a tree, using the curved trunk and branches as support for the rest of the structure. The result was a very unique looking house that one would never see inside of Convocity.

"Reiga? I'm home! Is lunch ready yet?" The disguised zorua called out as they entered the house.

"Welcome back Chocola." The Lucario called as she emerged from what Vanilla assumed was a kitchen. "Oh, you've brought a visitor?" She said raising an eyebrow at both the eevee and the fact that her charge was disguised as one.

"His name's Vanilla! Um, he's new, so I thought I'd invite him over for lunch, is that okay?"

"It most certainly is. I'll make some more sandwiches, but first, you should wash up. You're both filthy."

"Yes, ma'am. Come on, Vanilla. This way."

As Vanilla walked after Chocola, he turned to thank the lucario for preparing him a meal. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Reiga."

At this, Reiga stopped the eevee in his tracks. "Hold up a moment, Little One."

"Reiga?" Chocola questioned. "What's wrong?"

"Hmm? nothing. Just that a lady should tidy up by herself, in private." Reiga said nodding towards the zorua as if to emphasize something.

"Oh right!" Chocola remembered that even if she was just washing her paws, being close to Vanilla while she did it might give away the illusion. And with how weird the eevee seems to act at times, seeing her change like that might be a bit more than he could handle at the moment.

Back in the living room, Reiga lifted the stone off of Vanilla's back. The simple touch caused the eevee to visibly flinch. "Oh, I'm sorry, Vanilla." Taking a step back, she kneeled down so that she wasn't towering over his tiny frame. "I didn't mean to startle you. I just wanted to talk while Chocola was busy. This is one of her's isn't it?" Reiga asked while holding the stone up for examination.

"Chocola gave it to me. We found it in a cave."

"Oh? That must have been some adventure. So Vanilla, can I ask you a question?"

"Um…"

"Well, let me ask one anyway. Being an eevee, you wouldn't happen to know about the commotion in Convocity last night, would you? Rumor has it that there was an attack on the Council…" Reiga noticed Vanilla's irises shrink a little more with each word. "Now, don't you worry, Little One. You don't have to answer if you don't want to. News travels fast, even out here in Jocundale, but it would be very difficult to get here from the capital in such a short amount of time. Word in town is that the Evolution Council was overthrown and the members captured, well most of them. Some of them supposedly escaped. Now, I'm not saying that a little one, such as yourself, ran all the way here from Convocity, but if you did," Reiga leaned closer to the cowering eevee, "just know that you'll always be safe here." she whispered.

At this Vanilla was able to calm down once more. It seemed Reiga was very perceptive.

The moment was interrupted by a damp, but clean, Chocola attempting to tackle the crouched lucario. "Hey give that back!"

"Not so fast," Reiga questioned while artfully dodging her charge, "Vanilla said you gave it to him."

"Well… I did! But you should still give it back!"

"And I will, but after lunch. Go ahead and wash up now, Vanilla, while I get the sandwiches ready. Chocola will show you the way." Reiga finished as she left the room.

"Alright, come on, you. I'm getting hungry." The vixen admitted while trying to pull Vanilla out of another daze.

Vanilla was trying to process the pieces that seemed to be falling together in his mind. Sandwiches? Most pokemon just ate berries, especially out here. Didn't they? That and the lucario- a lucario named Reiga. It all made sense!

"Wait, so is _your_ Reiga, _THE_ Reiga?"

"Hehe. Yep, the one and only!"

His mother had always told him stories that came from a lucario born in the human world. She had been stranded on Exile before Vanilla had ever been born. Her stories of the outside world inspired an entire generation of pokemon with human-sounding names, or, at least what they thought were human-sounding names. Even his mother admitted that her name, Cream, was just a nickname given to honor the lucario and her stories.

But all of that begged another question. What was she doing here?


	5. Chores

"Where… Are… We… Going…?" the still-sore eevee asked through panted breaths.

"Oh, um. Right. I guess this is far enough to escape the floette, but we've only got a little farther to go to get where we're headed."

"Can we slow down a bit, miss? Oh! My apologies on skipping formalities miss, my name is Vanilla."

The disguised zorua stopped in her tracks and eyed Vanilla, "You're an odd one aren't you?"

"Excuse me? I'm not sure I follow."

"You're awfully polite is what I'm saying. Not too many of those around here. My name's Chocola, by the way. Nice to meet you!"

"Oh, yes. It's nice to meet you, Chocola. I appreciate the help back there. I wasn't aware that floette were so protective of their territory."

"Well, of their flowers anyway. They are going to be _so_ mad when they see the mess you made!" Chocola teased.

"I didn't mean to, I swear. I was just tired and, and…"

"Hey, don't worry about it. I believe you. Besides, I don't want to talk about boring stuff when we've arrived!" Chocola said in a sing-song voice, stopping just in front of the mouth of a dark cavern. Even with the morning sun pouring down the shaft, it was difficult to see more than a few steps inside.

Vanilla sniffed the damp, stale air. Some unknown substance permeated the place. "What is it we hope to accomplish here?"

"Looking for shinies."

"I don't follow, what is a 'shinies'?"

"Oh you sad, little eevee… How I envy the thought of learning of the shinies. Shinies, you see, are the most important things in life. Treasures of the shiniest shine. Magnificent in their shape and texture. In the right paws, shinies are power!"

"So a shiny is a type of legendary evolution stone?" Vanilla asked, slightly confused.

"Yes! Well, no, actually. I've never even found a regular evolution stone, let alone a legendary one. Those are super rare."

"But you're sure there are some in here?"

"Nope. But that's why we're looking!" Chocola squealed before hopping into the darkness.

Vanilla approached the void as if it were some deadly creature eager to nip at his extremities. "And you're sure this is safe."

"Hah, no. That's what makes it fun! Now come on, it gets easier to see once you're inside."

"If you say so…" Vanilla said worriedly.

Following Chocola's footsteps and the constant drip that emanated from some deeper locale, Vanilla pressed on. It really wasn't so bad once his eyes adjusted, even if it was still rather difficult to see more than a few paces.

"So how does one find these shinies? What do they look like?" Vanilla asked.

Chocola responded by quickly pouncing on the eevee, holding her paw to his muzzle. "Shhhh… For starters, we gotta be quiet if we don't wanna wake anything up. As for what they look like, you'll just know it when you see one." She whispered to him in a hushed tone.

'Wake who, or what, up? I thought she said this place was safe…' Vanilla thought worriedly, wisely keeping his ponderings to himself.

As they pressed on, the sound of dripping water grew louder. Its source became evident soon enough, as a shaft of light pierced through the ceiling up above, pouring into the same underground lake as the dripping water. Pools of light cascaded off of the rippling surface in smooth arcs that illuminated the roof of the cave.

What they saw first made the pair stop in their tracks, littered around the ceiling were tiny little crystals that seemed to capture and reflect the paltry light and turn it into something truly amazing as the little beams glittered in every direction.

Vanilla was the first to break out of his reverie. "Are these the shinies?"

"Oh, yeah, sort of. You know what they say, you can only find shinies where you see them, after all." Chocola whispered back.

"Do they say that? Who says that?"

"Just shush and help me dig. Jeez, you don't have to get all philosophical on me, even in the shiniest cave ever."

As they got to digging around the surprisingly soft cave floor, it became evident that they weren't the first prospectors to churn around the earth in the cave.

"Darn digletts beat me here again…" Chocola said a little dejectedly.

"But don't they live in places like this?"

"Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean the get to steal my treasures…" she retorted in a huff.

Just as Vanilla was about to claim the endeavor a wash and pull himself out from his self-dug hole, his back paw caught on something hard. For the second time today, he found himself with a face full of dirt. "Ow!"

"Hey, are you okay?" Chocola said as she wandered over from her own hole.

"I think so, I just tripped over a rock or something. Must have knocked it loose during the excavation." Vanilla reported, checking his paw for injuries. He honestly couldn't remember the last time he was this dirty. Now that he was thinking about it, he'd never really _been_ dirty before.

Ignoring, entirely, the dirt and how much of it must have been covering herself, Chocola jumped into the eevee's pit. The only thing that alerted him to the action was a fit of giggling.

"Um, are you-"

"You found a shiny!" The disguised zorua shouted in excitement.

Before Vanilla could question his own good fortune with a, "What, really?" the sounds of thousands of wing-beats filled the cave. The shout had awakened some of the cave's inhabitants.

"Zubat! Run!" Chocola shouted before pushing the stone out of the hole and picking it up with her mouth.

She'd already darted past Vanilla before he registered what zubat had to do with anything. Suddenly remembering that loud noises might wake something up, and that something was probably living in this cave, _and_ that zubat live in caves, he quickly chased after the vixen.


	6. Jocundale

"Are chores hard? Is that why you didn't want to do them earlier?"

"No, not really, they're just boring is all. Besides, the weather was way too nice to waste on windows!" Chocola declared.

"Well, I suppose I should be thankful that you decided to skip out on your responsibilities today. If you'd finished your chores, we might not have met!"

"Yeah, well, there's no getting out of these ones…"

"What's so bad about the task Reiga gave us? Is picking up groceries difficult?"

Chocola gave the eevee another one of her odd looks. "You sure are an odd one, Vanilla, but to answer your question, this task is super easy."

"Is there something about the town you dislike?"

"I suppose you could put it that way. Let's just say that, if we're lucky, we won't have to deal with it today." Chocola picked up her pace. "Come on, I'll race you!"

"Hey, not so fast!" Vanilla shouted after the vixen as she increased her lead. He wasn't looking forward to running more than he had to until he recovered.

The trip into town was uneventful, but it gave Vanilla time to think. To be honest, he was kind of excited to try out this whole 'chores' thing. He'd always seen the council's workers going about their jobs, and he'd always given them the respect his mother said they deserved for being such diligent workers, but he really had no idea what such work entailed. Even if he was using it as an excuse not to think about his more pressing issues, learning new things was at least partially fun.

Before long, the houses grew closer and closer together, until the space between them reached a point of saturation, no longer filled with field and forest, but gardens and the occasional tree. The crowds of pokemon thickened as well, though not to the degree that Vanilla had witnessed on the few occasions he'd been taken outside the council's complex. Still, the bright colors and cumulative chatter provided a stark contrast to Chocola's rather remote home.

"Hehe, I win!" Chocola said, easily securing her victory from the winded eevee "You really need to get outside more, Vanilla!" After noticing that the eevee in question was still trying to take everything in, it donned on her that he hadn't seen the town at all. "You haven't been here before? Did you just move here today, or something?"

"Not to my knowledge…" Vanilla replied with an earnest smile,"This is my first time here, though. Everything is so colorful!"

"Of course it is! Welcome to Jocundale, silly! And I thought _I_ lived under a rock." Chocola chided sarcastically.

Vanilla's ears drooped at her observation for a moment before he remembered their task. "So now what? What does one do when getting groceries?"

"You're so weird!" Chocola teased, pulling Reiga's board off of her back. "Well, we take this to Pakki's shop. Normally, you'd pay for what you're buying when you buy it, but we get what's called a tab." Vanilla looked confused. "That just means we can pay what we owe for the supplies once daddy gets back."

Vanilla nodded his head. "That makes sense, I suppose. It's some sort of short-term credit situation, but instead of a loan of coins, you just pick up the goods and settle the debt at a later date, just like normal?

Chocola had her head tilted in confusion.

"What's the matter? Did I misunderstand?"

"No… It's just… Well, the way you act makes it seem as though you come from a world that's just as weird as Reiga's human stories, so that's why you don't understand things like chores. But then you go and explain things better than I ever could, like you didn't just understand, but… I don't know, wrote the scroll on it, or something." Chocola sighed before continuing into town. "Well whatever, at least you aren't boring, Vanilla!"

"I'll take that as a compliment, I suppose. Thanks, Chocola!"

"Yep, definitely weird."

Their destination ended up being a small covered stall covered with white-and-blue striped fabric that sat next to a larger building.

"Pakki? Are you in there?" Chocola shouted as she stepped into the store.

"Chocola? Is that you?" Said an older pachirisu female who hopped onto the counter. A brief look of confusion crossed her face before she saw Vanilla following behind her customer. "Reiga said you'd be stopping by. And you brought a friend? You've certainly been busy lately, little miss."

"Yeah, yeah. Here's the list for today." The disguised zorua said as she handed the piece of wood.

The pachirisu cleared her throat as she picked up the list.

"Oh, right! Vanilla, this is Pakki, she runs the general goods store. Pakki, Vanilla."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Pakki! This is a nice store you have here."

"Why thank you, Vanilla, but it's Missus Pakki." She said before returning her attention to her list. "Let's see what we have here… A few berries, another charcoal pencil, and oh? I'm afraid I'll have to find Pecan for the rest of this order, Chocola. You won't be able to carry all of this by yourselves."

"What? What did Reiga want to buy!?"

"See for yourself…" Pakki said as she handed the list back.

Reading down past the usual fruits and supplies, Chocola found the suspect item and groaned.

"What's wrong?" Vanilla asked in his usual curious tone. Looking at the things on the list himself, he still couldn't tell what was causing such distress.

"Look at the bottom of the list…" Chocola suggested.

"'Four dozen flower bulbs.' I-I don't get it…"

"Ugh, it means that Reiga knows that we were in Floette's garden this morning! She's going to make us go back and plant all of those flowers tomorrow!"

"Oh!? Really? Wow. How did Reiga find out about that?"

"I don't know! Reiga's got some scary lucario magic when it comes to these things. She. Always. Knows." Chocola emphasized.

Vanilla let out a sigh of relief.

"What are you sighing about? That means that we have to do more work!"

"I'm just glad that the floette won't have to suffer for my actions. I think Reiga believes that I can pay them back by fixing what I broke."

"Yeah, but then you owe Reiga for figuring out how to fix the garden up! Did you ever think of that? That's how she works! It's diabolical!"

"Oh." Vanilla answered, ignoring her pleas that her caregiver was evil, "I'll have to think about how to repay Reiga and your dad then, I suppose."

"What does my dad have to do with any of this?"

"He's the one who will inevitably pay for these purchases, correct?"

Now it was Chocola's turn to stop and think. "Oh, riiight. When he pays the tab…"

Setting down two small, but fully laden satchels, Pakki butted into the somewhat animated antics of her customer. "Well, now that that's sorted, here's most of your order. Pecan will stop by later with the rest."

"Thanks, Pakki." Chocola stated as she donned one of the bags. "We'll leave the bags with Pecan when he gets there."

Vanilla attempted to copy Chocola's donning of the satchel with a little bit of success. Thankfully, he only needed to figure out how to adjust the strap before he managed to slide it over his head and forelegs. Moving with the bag was another story, however. The shifting contents of the bag threatened to throw his balance off with every movement. "Woah-"

"Hey, watch it!" Chocola said as she reared up and steadied the wobbling eevee. "Wow, you really weren't kidding when you said you didn't know how to do this kind of stuff."

"Sorry. I-I Don't…"

"Calm down, will ya? Stop trying to push against the weight and just widen your steps a bit more, like this." Chocola said as she slowly walked around the eevee. "Now you try." She continued after helping him to his feet.

Sure enough, he managed to get a somewhat steady rhythm, at least enough of one to keep him from falling over, anyway. And with each additional step, Vanilla seemed to be getting the hang of walking with the pack.

"There you go, now let's get back home!" Chocola cheered.

An awestruck Pakki leaned closer to the zorua and whispered, "What's his deal?"

Chocola whispered back, "Don't worry about him, he's just sorta new, to well, everything…"

"Oh?" Pakki answered with a quizzical look on her face as her customers managed to finally make their way out of her store.

"Who were they?" a younger pachirisu asked as he entered from the back room.

"That was Chocola and her new friend, Vanilla."

"Chocola? But why did she look like an eevee?"

"I'm sure you'll understand when you're older, Pecan. Now, I've got some more things to add to the numels' cart before the evening deliveries…"


	7. Clementine

Once outside the store, Vanilla really started to get a hold of the whole pack puzzle. He only had to look where he was placing his front paws only once every few steps by the time they made it to the end of the block.

Just after he'd conquered the complicated task of turning the corner, Vanilla suddenly found himself being pushed behind a stack of baskets with nothing but a "Shoot, quick, hide!" coming from Chocola.

"What's wro-?" Vanilla started only to have a paw bop him on the nose, cutting his question short.

"Shuuush! Please, please, please tell me he didn't see me…"

Before Vanilla could whisper who, a singsong voice emanated from above. "And who do we have here?"

"Go away, Clementine!"

"Oh my, Chocola? I can't say I understand why you constantly refuse to give me the simple pleasure of your presence?" The vulpix stated with a flashy grin.

"Because you're gross." Chocola said as she got up and headed beck towards the street. "Now if you'll leave us be, Vanilla and I are headed home."

The vulpix cut off her escape. "You and? Oh, an eevee?" Clementine observed. "Too bad, though. I don't exactly talk to males, you understand. Although that might explain Chocola's delectable little-"

"Hey!" The vixen in question cut him off with a mean look.

"Hmm? Well then it's none of my business, I suppose. But I have to say, I fully understand why those pokemon were looking for eevee. I could personally look at you all day, Chocola."

"Just go away, already!"

"Fine, fine. Just don't be a stranger, Chocola!" Clementine winked as he left for the path. Before gallivanting off, the vulpix could be heard trying to woo another pokemon that had caught his eye.

As Chocola simmered at the conversation, Vanilla brought her back to reality. "He seems nice."

"What part about that seemed nice? He practically ignored you."

"Hmm, maybe. I'm sort of used to it. At the very least, I believe that Clementine was sincere."

"Yeah, that's probably because you're not a girl. I'm sure he's _sincerely_ hit on every one of us in Jocundale Valley by now." Chocola stated while rolling her eyes. "Well, whatever. Let's get back home…"

Vanilla didn't know about any of that, but he did recognize the warning that the vulpix had given. Pokemon were out there looking for eevee. That not only meant that he probably wasn't the only one to escape, but that someone was looking for _him_ as well. Getting back to Chocola's house unseen would probably be for the best.

* * *

The trip back to Chocola's house was, thankfully, uneventful.

Chocola had removed her bag and had darted deeper into the house before the satchel hit the ground. Meanwhile, Vanilla found himself fighting with the strap's buckle once more.

"Reiga! We're back!" Chocola called out.

"Oh? With all of it?"

"Well, no. Pecan's supposed to deliver the rest later." Chocola said with her ears drooped at the memory of what the extra items entailed. "Does Vanilla really have to fix up the floette's garden tomorrow?"

"Nope." Reiga responded simply.

"What! Really?"

"Because you're going to help him."

"Aww. Why?" Chocola pleaded.

"Because you didn't tell me about it after the fact."

"But-"

"Nope, no 'buts'. Say, where's Vanilla?"

"Oh! He's probably still by the door trying to get his pack off." Chocola explained before darting back to the entrance.

Reiga sensed something was wrong before she heard Chocola's shout.

"Reiga come quick!"

The lucario hurried to the door. Chocola was nudging Vanilla in an attempt to wake the prone eevee. He'd never managed to get the pack off before passing out. In one quick motion, Reiga removed the stubborn clasp and picked the eevee up to check on him.

Vanilla was breathing normally, and Reiga noticed little flutters under his eyelids. Dreams. Vanilla was just asleep. "Good, he's just asleep is all, Chocola. It seems you've tuckered the poor guy out."

Chocola perked up at the announcement that Vanilla was okay, but other thoughts quickly resumed their course through her head. "But-, but He never told me where he lived! We have to take him home to his parents for bed don't we!?"

"Calm down, Chocola." Reiga said as she placed Vanilla down on the living room cushions as carefully as possible. "Tell you what, clean up for dinner and unpack the groceries, and I'll try to flag down a wingull. If there's anyone who knows where a new eevee family has moved, it'll be that old Pelipper, Mister Perso."

"O-okay…" Chocola said as she slowly wandered off, still worried about Vanilla.

Once the zorua had left, Reiga resumed her examination of the eevee. His breathing still steady, she picked up one of his paws and got a closer look. The pads were soft, little nicks and cuts could be seen, but nothing deep or serious, but most of all, they were bruising. The bruises continued even into his fur. If Reiga's assumptions about Vanilla's origins had been guesswork until now, the eevee's condition was more than enough to solidify them.

Vanilla had spent most of his life well cared for. If she didn't know any better, Reiga'd probably assume that this eevee had never walked more than a dozen paces any day of his life. The poor thing was really going to be sore in the morning.

It also meant that flagging down the mail-birds was going to be a fruitless effort.

That being the case, the lucario found herself in awe that the little, pampered fox had, so far, been absolutely stoic, never mentioning or complaining of his injuries even once during the course of the day.

"Maybe there is hope for you yet, Little One" Reiga whispered into Vanilla's ear before covering him with a blanket. "Only time will tell…"


	8. Dessert

With Vanilla sleeping soundly, dinner ended up being far quieter than usual. It was obvious that Chocola seemed worried for the eevee, even if she wasn't mimicking his species' form.

"Are you sure he'll be okay?"

"Yes, I'm sure," Reiga replied, "all he needs is some rest."

Silence filled the air as Chocola pushed one of her strib berries across her plate in disinterest.

Reiga leaned forward conspiratorially, "So? What's with the change?"

"Hm? Oh!" Chocola had almost forgotten that she still looked like an eevee. "Um, I kinda accidentally scared him awake this morning. Like, _really_ scared him. I-I didn't mean to, honest, but anyway, I figured this was the best way to calm him down…"

"Is that all? It's not like you to keep up a trick for so long."

"It's not a trick! It's just that, he calmed down so much, and then we got sidetracked, and I kinda just forgot, I guess."

"So, when are you going to tell Vanilla that you're not an eevee?"

Chocola thought about it for a moment. "I don't know… I mean, what if I tell him and he doesn't like me anymore?"

Reiga raised an eyebrow. "That's never bothered you before. I hear you terrorize Cheddar and his friends constantly."

"T-that's different! They know it's a game!" Chocola had to admit that the other pokemon her age weren't very fond of her 'games' "Besides, he seems to like eevee me. What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing, I suppose, but I think that you shouldn't lie to your friends, Chocola. That boy's smarter than you're giving him credit for. I'm sure he'll figure it out eventually."

Chocola sighed before finally eating the final, helpless strib berry on her plate, and allowed Reiga to collect the dishes before finally resting her head on the table in frustration. Reiga was right, of course, as much as it pained the zorua to acknowledge. She'd have to tell Vanilla eventually. "But he's so _different_ than the rest… What if, when I tell him, he just treats me like they do?"

The lucario was certain she knew what made the eevee different but felt compelled to keep that particular secret, as is, for the time being. "If he's really your friend, Chocola, he'll understand."

Silence filled the air again as Reiga finished with the dishes.

"Do we still have to fix the floette's garden tomorrow?"

"If Vanilla feels up to it, yes."

"Yeah, he doesn't really seem to be the sturdy worker type…"

"Well he managed to keep up with you for most of the day, so he's at least got a little stamina." Reiga teased. There was no downtime with the zorua around.

Chocola perked up a little at this. "So, how long until his parents come by to pick him up, anyway?"

"Oh, um. They're pretty busy right now. So Vanilla will be staying the night, at the very least." Reiga lied.

"In that case, we should probably leave him a snack. You know, in case he wakes up hungry."

"I'll leave some leftovers out if it makes you feel better. In fact, if Vanilla's going to be staying a while, how about I make us a special treat, hmm?"

Now the lucario had Chocola's attention. "Oh, oh! How about _The Pie_!"

"Sure. We'll need some more ingredients for it, but I think you've made an excellent choice!"


	9. Bedtime

As Chocola readied herself for bed, she found herself staring back at her altered reflection. Her disguise was nearly flawless, every dimension matched that of the eevee resting downstairs. Of course, she'd altered it to suit her 'self-image' a bit, and had added superfluous flaws to increase its believability, those were tricks she'd learned from her mother at a very young age. Every zorua did, it was just in their nature.

What wasn't, was the same reason her reflection was bothering her. The fact that she was still wearing it. She'd never held onto one for so long. More to the point, she'd never felt compelled to. And for the life of her, Chocola couldn't figure out why.

It wasn't for her benefit, surely. She couldn't think of a reason she'd want, or need, to hide among the local eevee population for her own gain. Unlike Convocation city and its Eevolution Council, Jocundale didn't even have a substantial eevee population. Vanilla's family notwithstanding, of course, wherever they lived.

That only meant she was doing it for someone else, and Chocola wasn't so dense as to not know who she was maintaining her disguise for. But again, why? Sure, Vanilla was kind of entertaining, and a bit aloof most of the time, but surely he wasn't any different from any of the other pokemon she'd met. The minute he learned she was a zorua and, and not an eevee, he'd distance himself just like they did.

Just like they all did.

A whimper brought her back to reality. It came from downstairs.

Making her way downstairs, Chocola found the makeshift bed Vanilla was sleeping on in disarray. The eevee was still unconscious but had thrown off the blanket. Getting closer, Chocola could make out his furrowed brow and slight head-shake, as if he were saying 'no' in his sleep. Vanilla was suffering from a nightmare.

'Poor guy' Chocola thought. She'd had more than her fair share of those as a young pup. Being the good host that she was, the zorua felt compelled to do something. Her mother had helped with nightmares back then too. First thing she'd do is tuck Chocola in tight, then rub the scruff of her neck until she calmed down a bit. Then to finish the nightmare off, she-

Chocola's eyes widened at the realization that she was nuzzling an eevee she'd only met that morning. Panic set in, and she was sure that she was turning three different shades of red in embarrassment as she darted off towards the stairs. Something stopped her halfway up, however. Looking back down at Vanilla, she could see that his nightmare had passed.

Entering her room, and closing her door behind her, Chocola tried to think about her actions once more, and what they meant, only to conclude that she was too tired to think of anything. She only hoped that Vanilla was truly asleep so that she could avoid the additional embarrassment of bringing the situation up again. Her cheeks still burning, Chocola went to bed.

* * *

Reiga had been in the kitchen. She didn't need to use her aura sense to tell when Chocola was slinking about the house, but it did help her get a clear picture of the vixen's interactions with their guest.

Vanilla's aura had been turbulent, even in sleep. No doubt increased more than a vivid dream had any right to. Chocoloa's had shown a rare moment of clarity, for her anyway, before the two states suddenly switched places.

Now Chocola's aura had spiked in activity, embarrassment, it seems. But Vanilla's was now even and cool. However amusing the interaction must have been, the results were clear.

Rereading the message stick in her paw, Reiga rubbed the charred letters off of it and began rewriting. 'Our guest shows promise, but your C is likely growing attached. Things may start moving faster than we've prepared. -R'

Summoning a bit of her own aura, Reiga destroyed the twig in a silent pulse.

Moving silently to her own room, the lucario couldn't help but smile at the calm look on Vanilla's face. To be young once more…


	10. Flower Garden

Despite waking up sometime during the night and eating a salad that had been left out, Vanilla found himself starving when he woke up that morning. Thankfully, it was a scrumptious smell coming from the kitchen that woke him up.

Reiga called them pancakes, but Vanilla wasn't quite sure why they were called that. Maybe it was because they sort of looked like a pan? Regardless, he enjoyed them, and the nutpea syrup they were covered with, immensely.

"Does Chocola not like these pancakes?" Vanilla wondered at the vixen's missing presence.

"Oh, she loves them. And, provided she eventually gets out of bed, she can have some." Reiga said as she sat down with her own plate. "So, how are you feeling today? You gave Chocola quite a shock yesterday afternoon."

That's right. Vanilla's tiredness had snuck up on him so quick he didn't even manage to doff his satchel. "My apologies, I'm not sure what came over me."

Reiga eyed the eevee with a raised eyebrow. "Oh? Well, just try not to push yourself too hard today. It would be a shame if another episode like that were to occur during less favorable circumstances."

Vanilla's ears swung back behind his head. "I'm sorry, Ma'am. I'll try to be more careful."

"Hmm. Just don't let Chocola drag you off on every whim of hers, and I'm sure you'll be fine."

A loud thump and a groan could be heard upstairs, followed by a groggy inquiry about the breakfast aroma that had wafted throughout the house.

"Speaking of the rascal, it appears as though she's finally awake." Reiga noted through an entertained smiled.

* * *

After finishing the hardy meal, Vanilla and Chocola found their satchels packed with the flower bulbs that had been delivered the day before. They would have to be carried back to the floette's garden before work could begin, but at least the garden was closer to the house than Jocundale was.

When the duo finally reached the flower field, they found a few floette, and a florges waiting for them.

"Are these the culprits from yesterday?" asked the florges in a commanding tone.

Chocola stepped up for introductions but was stopped by Vanilla.

"My name is Vanilla, Sir. I apologize for any trouble I may have caused you yesterday. If you'll allow it, Chocola and I will assist in repairing the damage, under your direction, of course."

The florges pondered over the eevee's words for a moment. "I find those terms acceptable. We will even accept these actions in place of Chocola's past troubles depending upon how well you work for us today."

Chocola swallowed. All she had to do to get on the gardener's good side was to do a few chores for them? Why had no-one mentioned this before? Granted, she had to do a 'good' job, but still…

"Come on then, let's go- um…"

"You may call me, Feiss, Chocola. This way, if you would." The florges in question said as he led the way towards the damaged flowerbed.

The work was fairly straightforward, once the debris from Vanilla's path of destruction was removed to a reclamation pile, holes could be dug and the bulbs could be planted.

Feiss gave quick, curt instructions on how to space the holes and how deep to dig them, much to the detriment of Chocola's attention span. She eventually got out of the habit of digging for treasure with every hole but her bulb planting left much to be desired.

When Vanilla noticed that his own work was steady, but his hole digging was extremely slow, he got an idea.

Work went much faster once Chocola was tasked with digging the holes so that Vanilla could concentrate on the replanting. In fact, with the exception of an initial watering, they finished the job well ahead of lunch.

When Feiss went to get some water pails so that they could be filled from the stream, Vanilla gave the flower bed a once-over. Not quite in rows, the mounds still managed to fill up the gap he'd woken up in not two days ago. Eventually, he noticed Chocola standing off to the side, staring past the trees beyond the nearby stream.

"Is something the matter, Chocola?" Vanilla asked of the vixen.

"What? No." She replied. "It's just that I was wondering what's past these trees here, I've never been over there before."

"I was under the impression that you've been through here lots of times?"

"I have, but the floette usually chase me away before long. I've never made it much farther than this."

Feiss came back with pails and they got back to work with the watering, but Vanilla found he wanted to know what was behind the wooden veil himself.

"Excuse me, Feiss, Sir? Is it alright if I ask for a favor?" Vanilla asked once the all of the mounds had had a good soak.

"Hmm?" The Florges thought to himself for a moment before leaning closer to the eevee.

Vanilla whispered his request to Feiss.

"I suppose I can grant your request. Just remember that you are only allowed to observe, nothing more. This way."

Chocola suddenly felt less bored and more intrigued. "What was that about?"

"I guess we'll see!" Vanilla said with a sincere grin as he started following the florges.

The underbrush proved no match to the ground-bound duo's curiosity, and soon they were greeted with a clearing beyond the trees.

Mount Everpeak dominated the sky behind the meadow standing before them, the slight breeze caused the flowers in the field to sway in gentle waves, something that almost never broke through the glade that Chocola was used to.

The meadow before them was also much, much larger than the garden, the flowers speckling the field all the way down the hill as the stream cut into its perimeter.

The sights and smells of the flowers were almost too much for Chocola, who found herself ready to burst through the meadow at top frolicking speed!

Vanilla tackled the vixen before she could jump into the flowers.

"Ow! Vanilla!?"

"Wait, Chocola! Look." Vanilla pointed to something hiding amid the flowers as he helped her up. "Do you see them?"

"Them?" Chocola squinted as she tried to see what Vanilla was pointing at. It wasn't long before she spotted them too.

"Yep, this meadow is filled with flabebe. I think that's why they don't want you running through the flowers here."

"Oh…" Chocola said as her ears drooped a bit. "I didn't know. I-I wouldn't have hurt them, though! Don't they know that?"

"I think they _do_ know, it's just that they're being protective is all. And as much as I know you'd like to run through the field, I only asked if we could see it."

"Now that you see, we hope you understand." Feiss stated.

Chocola had almost forgotten the florges was still there. "I understand…" Though she never liked that others thought she would ever want to hurt them.

It was true that she wanted nothing more than to run through the field right now. Looking at Vanilla though, he seemed content just to take in the sights and smells, she would just have to make due as well.

Closing her eyes, Chocola inhaled deeply. Thousands of scents filled her nostrils, not all of them from the flowers that dotted the field in front of her.

The cool breeze countered the heat from the sun, maintaining a perfect balance of hot and cold on her coat. Between that and the fresh air, Chocola could almost be content to sit and watch. Almost.

"Thanks Vanilla!" she said while excitedly jumping around him. "This place is the best!"

"Yeah, well, you can probably thank Feiss for letting us see this place, too. We wouldn't be here without his approval."

"Thanks, Feiss!" Chocola said in earnest. "I'm sorry if you were worried before. About me, I mean, when I entered your gardens all of those other times. I'd never hurt you guys!"

"Such trust must be earned, Little One."

"Trust?"

"That you meant no harm, at the least. Today, however, you've earned more than that, if only a little." Feiss said as he motioned for the foxes to depart. "We will remember that you've helped fix what you have broken, but the flowers now need time to grow."

"Aww, can we come back and visit this place at least? In the future."

'Maybe. Perhaps if more trust is earned." Feiss stated cryptically.


	11. Chocola's Secret Mission

"So, how did everything go?" Reiga asked as her charges returned to the house. "Well, I hope?"

"It did!" Chocola said excitedly. "I mean, I guess the planting stuff was a bit boring, but I got to dig a bunch of holes, and then I got to see the giant Flabebe meadow!"

"Oh?"

"It's true," Vanilla confirmed, "the flabebe meadow had an excellent view of the Everpeak."

"That's a rarity, Feiss must have been quite impressed with you two to let you see that." Reiga complimented.

"Well, I still wish I could run through it a little, but I didn't want to scare anyone, so we just got to look at it. It was still pretty great, though!"

"Good to hear it." Reiga continued. "Now I'll have lunch in a bit, but afterward, you'll have to go back into town and get a-"

"Um, Reiga, wait!" Chocola cut in, motioning for the lucario to lean closer to her. "Could you-" Chocola started whispering into Reiga's ear while looking conspiratorially at Vanilla.

"Hmm, if that's how you want it. I suppose I can keep Vanilla entertained for a while."

"Thanks Reiga!"

Vanilla tilted his head to one side, thoroughly confused. "Thanks? For what?"

"That's a secret!" Chocola answered. "You talked to Mr. Feiss about the garden for me, Now it's my turn to do something! But you'll have to wait here while I get the stuff for it, is that all right?"

"I guess so, I don't really have much planned, honestly."

"I'm sure we can figure something out…" Reiga said with a grin.

* * *

Once Chocola had disappeared down the trail towards town, Vanilla turned to the lucario. "Thank you, Reiga, for everything. You've been most helpful."

"Are you sure? It's pretty unusual to be thanked for doling out punishment."

"But it was the right thing to do. And that's not all I'm thanking you for, either."

"Oh?" Reiga said as she started heading inside.

"I'm thanking you for letting me stay here, and for coming up with an explanation regarding why." Vanilla said sincerely. "I don't know how I'll ever return the kindness you've shown me."

Reiga thought about it for a moment. Were she doing this out of only the goodness of her heart, she would accept the gratitude and think nothing more of it. "Well, I appreciate it, but paying me back can wait. What you need to do is figure out what you are going to do next."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, although you haven't exactly explained who you are or where you've come from, I know that you know that I'm pretty sure I know your identity."

Vanilla gulped.

"As such, I'm asking what you plan to do in order to save your family."

"Oh, that…" Vanilla replied as his ears drooped back. Truth be told, he hadn't given it much thought. No, he didn't want to think about it at all. "I guess- I mean, I do need to save them, but I don't the first thing about how to go about it. I'm not even sure who-"

"Absol. Two of them, actually. A pair of brothers by the names of Absolution, and Perihelion." Reiga stated matter-of-factually.

"What?! Why would they?"

Obviously, Vanilla wasn't being kept in the loop in regards to council affairs. "From what I understand, they were fed up with how their information was being handled by the council." Reiga answered.

"So, in short, they wanted something done, the council refused for some reason, and the absol brothers took matters into their own paws? What could they possibly have that would warrant such actions?" Vanilla asked, unsure what to make of his conclusion.

"That, Vanilla, is something that you'd have to ask them about, yourself…"

* * *

Chocola was in good spirits. First, Vanilla was going to be staying over for a while, then she had finally been able to see the flabebe's meadow? Who knew that asking nicely would get her farther than sneaking around?

On top of that, Reiga as going to make her _favorit-est_ dessert ever! Light, fluffy crust. Sweet and tart filling that was topped with an even fluffier whipped topping. All that was missing was the berries she had just picked up.

Chocola was even setting, what she thought, was a record time for running to Pakki's store and back. She only hoped that Vanilla liked the dessert as much as she did.

"Well, well, well… What do we have here?" A drifloon said as it floated into Chocola's path.

"Excuse, me." Chocola stated in annoyance. "You're in my way."

As the vixen tried to move around the aerial pokemon, an infernape blocked off her other exit.

"That is the point." The ape said flatly.

"Why?" Chocola asked as her gaze moved back and forth between the two. "Look, you must not be from around here, but you'd be better off if you left me be. If you're looking for someone to chase, I'm sure you can find Cheddar around here somewhere…"

"We're not looking for no 'Cheddar'. All we need is eevees." Drifloon said as it readied an attack.

Chocola had nowhere to run and was hit by a direct blast from the drifloon's hypnosis attack.

It had no effect…

'Duh, I'm not an eevee.' Chocola thought to herself. Of course hypnosis wasn't going to work on her because she was a dark-type pokemon, and hypnosis was a psychic attack. She was practically immune, but that didn't mean that these goons needed to know that. After all, the infernape's attacks _would_ do some damage.

"Oooohhh…" Zorua moaned before giving out a loud yawn and pretending to fall to her side in unconsciousness, her satchel of berries tossed harmlessly, and safely, to the side.

"Aha! Bagged us an eevee after all!" the drifbloon stated. "Maybe now Leshari won't be mad at us for letting some of them escape!"

"Hold your ponyta's, Latte, we still have to get this one back to Convocity." the infernape said.

Chocola had to suppress a giggle, they were buying her act. She should probably escape the first chance she got, but her curiosity was getting the better of her. Why would eevee's be escaping from the capital? Could this have something to do with why Vanilla seemed sad all the time? Chocola had to find out, and to do that, she'd just have to play along.

"Well, either way, Monmon, this one's out cold. Bring the cart around and we'll load her up."


	12. Detained Doppleganger

The zorua found herself being placed inside a shoddily-built cage being pulled by an even less solidly-constructed cart. The ride was bumpy and uneven, but the worst part?

Chocola was getting bored. Being asleep was one thing, but playing at sleeping? Boooriing with a capital 'B.'

"Aww, looks like sleeping beauty is finally up from her nap."

'Hehe. Better late than never.' Chocola thought to herself. "W-where are you taking me?" she said, feigning fear.

The drifloon laughed. "What? Where do you think we're taking you? A pleasant cruise off the coast? Can you believe this eevee, Monmon?"

"Leave her alone, Latte. We don't need to be riling her up." The infernape pulling the wagon called out.

"Oh, please, everyone knows that eevee are harmless." Latte muttered.

"You still haven't answered my question…"

"We're taking you to Convocity, in case it wasn't obvious." The drifloon declared while pointing towards the city iin question.

"But why?"

"Jeez, you really don't know, do you? We're taking you to your parents. That way they'll have to do what Absolution says." the balloon pokemon declared.

"Latte! We're not supposed to talk to the prisoner."

"Come on, Monmon. As far as eevees are concerned, this one's both harmless _and_ clueless." Latte said as it reached through the bars and started scrunching Chocola's cheeks together. "See?"

"Who's Absolution?" Chocola asked through her 'torment'

"Really? You don't even know who's responsible for you being stranded out here in the first place? No wonder he and Perihelion were able to overthrow the Eevolution Council!"

"Oh?" Chocola said with a stretch as she started pacing the cage.

"Yeah, sorry to say it, but if your folks were as dumb as you are, they were going to get tossed out eventually. Guess you're lucky that it was the absol brothers that did it and not someone less nice!"

"Latte! Shut it!" the infernape said, getting tired of his comrade's antics.

"That's okay, I don't mind…"

"Hah! See what I'm-" The drifloon's sentence died as it glanced in Chocola's direction.

"Latte?" Monmon asked as he stopped the cart. "What-" then he saw it too.

The cage was gone, in its place twisted a whirling, wreathing shadow that seemed to absorb all light.

The shadow spoke. "Thanks for the info. I think I understand the situation a little better now." The shadow started to grow until it filled the vision of both the infernape and the drifloon. "But as for you, I don't think I _need_ you two anymore!" The voice finished as the shadowy tendrils rushed to surround the two, filling their vision with a veritable plethora of nightmares.

Latte screamed first, leaving the infernape behind in terror. Monmon however, outpaced the floating pokemon once he remembered how to control his own legs.

Chocola found herself alone in the perceived darkness. Moving towards the spot she had scouted earlier, the zorua wiggled her way through one of the slightly-larger holes in the side of the cage.

Free of the cage's confines, and of the two eevee-hunting goons, Chocola sighed to herself. "I guess I wouldn't have made a very good damsel in distress anyway…"

Not wanting to stay long enough for the two hench-pokemon to recover, Chocola headed back to her satchel.


	13. Waking Nightmare

Vanilla paced back and forth in worry. Had his mere presence brought disaster?

The two rattata siblings, Cheese and Swiss, had been coming to see Chocola about an apology when they witnessed an eevee getting abducted by pokemon from out of town.

The satchel they had found was filled with the berries that, as Reiga had informed them, Chocola had meant to pick up.

Despite Reiga's claim that the vixen knew how to handle herself, her message did little to calm Vanilla down. What if she never returned? He wasn't sure what he would do if harm had come to such a nice family, to Chocola, on his behalf.

Vanilla's worries were pushed aside once he spotted Chocola in the distance, not more than an hour after the rattata had delivered the news. He'd never been more thankful for the fact that Reiga had been right.

"Chocola! Are you okay, Cheese and Swiss saw the whole thing!"

"Please, Vanilla, it takes far more than something like _that_ to do me in! Sorry to worry you, but, um, thanks for your concern." the disguised zorua declared, a little embarrased at having someone worry over her.

"What happened? How did you escape? Are-"

"Whoah there, big guy, slow down. After what I just went though? I think the first question is mine." Chocola's voice turned serious. "It's time for you to tell us what's really happening."

"W-what do you mean?" The eevee stammered.

"Don't play coy Vanilla. These guys were after _you_ , not me. And I think it has to do with why you don't want to talk about home."

Vanilla sat down on his haunches. He'd finally been found out. To begin with, it had only ever been a matter of time, but in a way, the secret being out in the open with Chocola felt like a weight had been lifted off of his back.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier, Chocola… It's just-"

"Wait! Before you start blurting out the details," Chocola sniffed at the air, "I think we could all use a snack!"

Despite wanting answers, Chocola refused to let Vanilla's first Custap Cream Pie be marred by such talk. Only after the entire fluffy pastry had been consumed did she allow Vanilla to tell his story.

Vanilla cleared his throat once the plates had been cleared away. "I-I guess I'll start with who I am. I was born into one of the Eevolution Council families. My dad is an Umbreon named Fayd, and my mom's name is Caer, but everyone's been calling her Cream since Reiga told the council her stories of the human world. She's an eevee, like me."

"Ah, I believe I can recall a few pokemon by those names." Reiga chipped in.

"Yes. My mom's told me many stories about you, Reiga. She was always interested in the human world."

"What does that have to do with why those goons are after you?" Chocola asked.

"I'm not entirely sure. The night before you found me, my mom woke me up and led me to a secret passage that led outside the building. She stayed behind to ensure that I wasn't followed, but other than that, the only other details I know came from Reiga."

"Wait! You knew!?" Chocola said as she glanced at the lucario's smug grin. "Oh, of course, Reiga always knows! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it was not my place to discuss such matters."

"Again, I apologize Chocola. Reiga only guessed at who I was and left it at that. I haven't directly told anyone about my identity until now."

The vixen rolled her eyes in exasperation before signaling that Vanilla should continue.

"Well, Reiga said that the Eevolution Council was overthrown by a pair of absol by the names of Absolution and Perihelion. I am still unsure as to what their motivations may be, other than the fact that they were denied something and it didn't sit well with them. They've been holding my family and the rest of the council as hostages ever since."

"Wow, so what those guys were saying is true then. The Eevolution Council has really been outed?" Chocola asked in earnest.

"What did they say?"

"Nothing much. I gather that they aren't exactly the brightest of eggsecute eggs, if you know what I mean. According to them, Absolution's the one in charge, but the families aren't all cooperating with him, even as prisoners. That's why they sent pokemon out to find eevees, because it looks like your mom wasn't the only one who had the idea of letting her children escape. They also said something about how things with the council were bad enough that if the absol hadn't attacked, someone else probably would have. Although I don't know if those two could be considered an authority on that kind of thing…" Chocola added.

None of this was really helping Vanilla with his plan. "But why would Absolution attack the Council? And Perihelion? I've never met his brother, but Peri always seemed so nice…?"

"I guess you can't judge a book by its cover." Chocola mumbled to herself.

"What?" Inquired the eevee.

"Oh! Um, nothing. I-I'll tell you later…"

"Alright then. Well, that's pretty much the situation as far as I know it. I just don't know where to go from there." Vanilla said as his ears drooped.

"Duh, silly, it's obvious. We have to go and save your family!" Chocola declared.

"But I don't know the first thing about fighting!" Vanilla stated, suddenly adamant. "A-and I couldn't ask you to get involved!"

"Why not?"

"B-because you've been so nice and helpful, you and Reiga. I don't want to see you get hurt." The eevee admitted.

"Please. You're my friend, Vanilla. I'm sure we'll figure something out. It might even be fun!"

"Thanks, Chocola." Vanilla said with fresh tears forming.

"What's the matter?"

Vanilla wasn't quite sure. At first, he thought it was caused by remembering the night he escaped, but now? The Eevee ran over and hugged Chocola. "I-I guess I've never really had a friend before."

The vixen found herself at a loss for words as Vanilla encircled her in an embrace. Yes, she _had_ called him her friend, hadn't she? But even as he thanked her for everything she'd done for him over the course of the last two days, his voice muffled by her fur, the fact remained that she was still lying to him.

What kind of friend did that make her?


	14. Cascade Canyon

Vanilla was still unsure about what he needed to do to save his family. Chocola, however, decided to pull him along on another adventure rather than allowing him to mope around until he came up with an answer. Besides, the exercise could only be good for the eevee. Too bad being lost and constantly out of breath seemed to be the new normal.

"Welcome to Cascade Canyon, Vanilla!" Chocola told her out-of-breath friend.

"What treasure are we looking for today?" Vanilla managed once he had regained some iota of composure.

"Shinies, same as last time." Chocola said as she peeked over the edge, the river carved a course through the canyon below. "Although here we won't have to worry about zubat or diglett messing things up."

"Oh, that's good then-" Vanilla started before peering over the edge himself. The sudden height was jarring, to say the least. "Woah!" he finished as he retreated to the relative safety of not being near the ledge.

"Hehehe!" was all Chocola could say in regards to Vanilla's discomfort.

"Is there any place less precarious we could look?"

Chocola thought for a bit. "Not really. I mean, I've already checked the less-dangerous places. Well, most of them…"

"What do you mean?"

"There's a few places I haven't visited while treasure hunting around here, Places like the top of the super dangerous Everpeak itself!" Chocola stated while pointing to the top of the always-visible mountain. "One day, though, I'll conquer that mountain, and then, the rest of Exile!"

"That's a pretty lofty goal, Chocola." Vanilla stated, obviously impressed. "If you've already explored everything around here, you must have a pretty extensive collection of treasures already."

"Oh, that's right! You haven't seen my stash yet. We'll have to show you that when we go back."

"I can't wait-" Vanilla said before retreating from the precariously close edge once more. Looking at the vixen, his eyes pleaded with Chocola to find a better treasure-hunting local.

"Fine, we'll take the lower ridge when we reach the next branch in the path. There's bound to be one around here somewhere. But don't expect me to pass up any shinies that we see higher up."

"I somehow doubt that anyone could prevent that, Chocola." Vanilla stated with a smile.

"Hehehe!" Chocola grinned.

As they made their way to a crossroads, they had yet to come across any stones of value, affording Vanilla with the opportunity to take the lower path. Not that the rapids between the path and the nearby cliff walls seemed safe, but that was surely better than falling onto the ground from a greater height, right?

The distance between the canyon walls widened. As Chocola kept her eye to the rock walls, Vanilla found himself gazing over the widening river.

"I wouldn't get too close to it. The river only looks calm here. It's actually running pretty deep and fast below the surface."

"Oh?" Vanilla replied, taking her word for it. "Wait, I thought you said you hadn't been here yet."

"No, I said that I'd been almost everywhere, not that I haven't been _here_ before."

"Then why are we checking again?"

"Because, when it rains, the rocks on the cliff can loosen up and fall into the river. The rocks _behind_ those ones can be shiny." Chocola explained before suddenly stopping in front of Vanilla.

"What's wrong?"

Chocola pointed forward at the gap in the path where the rock had broken away just as she described. "Ugh, the only problem with this place is sometimes the trail falls off too…"

"Wait, what!? You mean our path could fall away at any time? What about the higher path we were on? Why-" Vanilla found himself cut off when a large boulder fell from above and landed right in the hole in front of them with a massive splash, nearly drenching the both of them.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing up there!?" Chocola shouted at the shadow moving about on the ledge above them. "You could have hit us!"

"I say! Miss Chocola, is that you I hear down there?" A vaguely quagsire-shaped shadow inquired from above. "Whatever are you doing traipsing through these parts?"

"I'm not trying to get squished by rocks if that's what you mean!"

"I'm sorry, but I didn't quite catch that. No worries, Miss Chocola, just you wait right there, and I'll be right down." The shadow declared before disappearing over the ledge.

"Who was that?" Asked Vanilla.

"I think it's Mister Erigsly. He's the leader of Team Dapper."

"So he's a guild member?"

"Correct, young eevee." The quagsire in question answered as he appeared down the path where they, too, had just come from.

"Hi, Mister Erigsly! This is my friend Vanilla. Vanilla, Erigsly. Now that that's out of the way, do you mind explaining why you were trying to squish us?"

"Squish you? Perish the thought!" Erigsly exclaimed as he inspected his work "Though I must apologize if it appeared that way. I had no idea anyone else was down here."

"Likely story…" Chocola said suspiciously.

"It is the truth. Team dapper was dispatched so that we may fix the damaged paths through the canyon. As it stands now, there is no route to the other side, So logically, it stood to reason that no pokemon were likely to wander through. Although it appears I was mistaken. So, that brings me to my next question, what are you, little ones, doing here, hmm?"

"Hey, don't change the subject!" Chocola stated before answering. "But if you must know, we're hunting for treasure!"

"Ah, gemstone hunting, a noble exploit, but I'm afraid you'd have better luck downstream. The rocks that fall into the water get worn down and deposited at a bend not too far from the canyon's exit if I'm remembering it correctly." Erigsly said while shaking his head knowingly.

Chocola shook her own head in frustration. "Darn, the sableye already have a claim there, otherwise I would've gone." The vixen thought for a moment before continuing "Wait, have you at least spotted anything up where you found that big rock?"

"I'm afraid not, Miss Chocola. I'd love to assist you in your quest, but I've still got work to attend to, and I suspect that I'll end up farther up the path. You will notify me if you notice any paths that require my attention, won't you? " Erigsly asked before turning to head back. "Although, you might try your inquiry with my assistants. They're bound to be around here somewhere. Maybe they've seen something. Oh, and be sure to give my regards to your father the next time you see him. Take care, Miss Chocola!"

"Bye, Mister Erigsly! I'll be sure to tell my dad!" Chocola waved the quagsire off.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, Mister Erigsly" Vanilla responded as well before turning to Chocola. "So your dad's a guild member too?"

"What? No. Daddy just helps them from time to time. I don't think he's ever been a member of a team." Chocola said as she used a fore-paw to gingerly test the rock the quagsire had used to repair the path. "Come on, let's go find his assistants! Four sets of eyes are better than two!" She finished before hopping across the boulder.

Vanilla sighed as he approached the impromptu bridge, realizing that, despite the danger, he had no choice but to chase after her.


	15. Team Dapper

After the incident with Team Dapper's leader, Vanilla wasn't sure what to expect of the rest of his team. The council had dealings with guild members from time to time, but Vanilla was never privy to such dealings.

From the stories he'd heard, he had been under the impression that Guild teams were all composed of rough-and-tumble pokemon looking for a fight, an outlook that didn't seem to fit Mister Erigsly in the slightest.

A few more twists and turns later and they could hear sounds of a struggle in the distance. Turning the corner revealed a farfetch'd wielding a leek against a fallen log. Holding the leek in his wing, the duck lunged at the log before slicing it neatly in two and returning to a ready stance.

"Hey there!" Chocola shouted.

"Wah!?" The farfetch'd shouted, nearly dropping his leek in surprise. "Don't you know it's rude to sneak up on other pokemon like that?" he quacked.

"Oh, our apologies. I'm Vanilla, and this is my friend, Chocola. Are you one of team Dapper's members, by chance?"

"Of course I am! The name's Fett, and if you can't tell, I'm very busy clearing out these felled trees."

"Mister Erigsly said we could ask you if you've seen any treasures around here." Chocola said as she hopped on top of one of the nearby wood piles. The pile wasn't stacked very neatly and nearly toppled over with her additional weight. "Woah!" she exclaimed before neatly recovering her balance.

"Hmmm." Fett said, closing his eyes to concentrate. "How about this. I tell you if I've seen anything, but first, you have to do something for me. How does that sound?"

The vixen didn't like the sound of that. "Aww, come on. It's just a simple question!"

"Ah, but your help will show how much you want an answer. You _do_ want that kind of information, yes?"

"Fine." Chocola said flatly, any work that might lead to treasure had to at least have some worth, right? "What do you need us to do?"

"Well, um, how do I put this. I can cut logs all day, but, um, I'm not very good at anything else…" Fett admitted as he rubbed the back of his head and gestured at the precariously stacked wood piles all around. "So, if you could help stack these, I'd appreciate it."

Stacking wood really didn't seem like fun to Chocola, but Vanilla beat her to the punch. Grabbing one of the sticks off of a nearby pile, he turned to the duck and asked for clarification. "We just need to stack these by the wall over there?"

"You bet! While you're doing that, I can finish cutting the rest of these logs, and we'll be ready for the next job!"

Vanilla saluted before dragging his stick over to the wall. "Come on, Chocola!"

'Why did he have to look so happy doing manual labor?' The vixen thought to herself before grabbing her own piece of wood and hopping off of the woodpile. 'This better lead to some really shiny treasure…" Chocola finished before setting her piece down next to the wall.

This was going to be a long day.

* * *

Vanilla was almost glad for the work. Despite the breaks he was forced to take to catch his breath, he no longer felt as though his fatigue would cause him to drop at a moments notice.

Chocola, however, was just glad the work was nearly finished. Rolling the last few logs into place, she called out for Fett. "Okay, we're done. Now it's time for you to hold up your end of the bargain. Where are the shinies?"

"Oh, um, about that… I actually haven't seen any…" The farfetch'd said sheepishly.

"You what!? Listen, you said you'd tell use where we could find some treasure after we helped, and we did, so are you going to tell us or not."

"Now, now. Calm down, Chocola, I'm sure there's a valid reason for Mister Fett's behavior." Vanilla attempted to mitigate.

"No, she's right. I just didn't want to stack all of those logs. Sorry."

"So we did all that work for nothing? Great! Just great!" Chocola yelled as Vanilla held her back from lunging at the bird.

"Well, look, I'm sorry I lied, okay. Tell you what, I'll take you to see the one pokemon on our team who has an eye for such things. If there's any treasure to be seen, Noodle's the one who's most likely to have seen it."

Vanilla looked hopeful, eager even. And with that look, Chocola's found her anger at the farfetch'd was quickly diminishing. "Fine. Let's go."

"That's the spirit! I'm sure she's around her somewhere." Fett said, happy to still have both his feathers intact _and_ a finished workload.

They found the final member of Team Dapper, a furret named Noodle, attempting to dig a tunnel through one of the more precarious outcroppings.

"Hey, Fett, finished already?" She said with surprise after she pushed a load of dirt and rock into the water below. Dusting herself off, she noticed the two foxes standing behind her teammate. "Oh, now I get it." She said while eying the farfetch'd with a half-lidded accusation. "Let me guess, you needed help with something, and Fett here agreed to help in exchange for doing some of his work. Only, after it was done, it turns out that he can't actually help you and now he's brought you here in hopes that _I_ might solve his problem. That about sum it up?"

"Wow! Almost precisely." Vanilla acknowledged with a surprised grin.

"What do I keep saying about doing stuff like that, Fett? One of these days, you going to make a deal with a pokemon that we really shouldn't be owing anything to. Do you understand that?" The furret said shaking her head in disparagement. "I swear, if you weren't such a decent fighter, you'd be the end of us, Fett."

"I like her!" Chocola whispered to Vanilla.

"Alright, what did the duck promise you so we can get that sorted?"

"Shinies!" Chocola exclaimed.

"What? I'm not sure I follow." Noodle said as she tilted her head.

"She means treasure." Vanilla translated. "Shiny stones in particular. Especially evolution stones if you've seen any, ma'am."

"Hmm. An odd request." the furret stated as she furrowed her brow in thought.

"So? Have you seen any or not? We've wasted a bunch of time stacking stuff already and the day's almost over!" The vixen pleaded.

"Hold on a sec." was the only thing Noodle said as she retraced her steps in her mind. It didn't take long for her to recall something promising. "Ah, there we go! Come on, I think I might know where to find what you're looking for." the jill said as she hopped back down the trail.

"Finally!" Chocola shouted as she leapt to follow the weasel.

As the group made their way to Noodle's possible treasure, Vanilla found himself walking next to Fett. Something about the conversation between the two dapper team members had piqued his interest. "So, um, Mister Fett? May I ask you a question?"

"Sure, kid. Just so long as it doesn't have anything to do with more treasure. And it's just Fett, by the way."

"Oh, right. It doesn't have anything to do with that, I promise. It's just that, Miss Noodle said you were a decent fighter earlier, and I was just wondering what it takes to learn how to fight."

"I'm not sure I follow…"

"Well, I mean. Where did you learn how to fight? Is there something special you have to do to do it well?"

"Look kid. All pokemon know how to fight. It isn't something you have to learn." Fett answered, to which Vanilla drooped his ears. Great, now he was ruining the pup's mood. 'Way to go, Fett…' "Now don't get me wrong," the bird added, attempting to change the direction of the conversation, "there's always room for improvement. That's kind of what the guild does. It puts members under pokemon who can pass on what they know to the younger members."

"So I just need to join a guild in order to get stronger?"

"Well, I suppose you could do that. I guess with the way things have been going for you eevee-types lately, you all could use some practice."

"Fett!" Noodle scolded, dropping any guise that she wasn't eavesdropping. "But, he is kind of right. It hasn't been safe for eevee to be traveling about these days."

"Yep, we know. But trust me, we'll be fine!" Chocola interjected.

"If you say so. Anyway, we need to go up there." Noodle said while gesturing to one of the trails that connected the lower path to the upper one.

Vanilla didn't like that prospect too much but thankfully, they didn't have to go very far. As they walked back along the cliff, Noodle stopped at a section of the path that was surrounded by little scraggly shrubs that half-hung over the cliff side.

"And we're here!" The furret declared triumphantly.

"Here where? I don't see anything."

"That's because it's up there!" Noodle said pointing to a tiny stone sticking out of the cliff side above their heads. "The suns changed position, so it was easier to see this morning."

"What is it?" Vanilla asked.

"I don't know, but I want it!" Replied Chocola. "How do we get up there, though?"

"I'm not sure we have to…" Noodle said as she examined the cliff face from up close.

"What do you mean?"

"See the rest of the rocks up there? They look ready to fall any day now. We just need to knock them loose." The furret said before backing up towards the shrub-lined perimeter of their outcropping.

"Knock them-? Wait are you sure that's a good idea?" Fett asked, the concern for his wellbeing rising with each syllable.

"We'll be fine. Just keep an eye on that gem so we don't have to dig around for it." Noodle said as she reared up for an attack.

A single headbutt was all it took to dislodge the ledge. The furret was a little dazed, but quickly recovered, and stepped out from the rock's path before it inevitably crashed onto the trail.

Only, the gem popped out of the rock as soon as it impacted, sending it tumbling directly for the edge.

"Oh no!" Chocola shouted as she dove towards it.

But she was too late, the gem just barely avoiding her grasp. Before it could plummet into the river below, however, the gem managed to lodge itself between the branches of one of the shrubs.

Before anyone could stop her, the vixen started climbing into the tree to retrieve her treasure.

"Chocola! Wait!" Vanilla yelled as he dashed after her.

Just as Chocola snagged the gem between her teeth, the branch snapped, but not before the eevee had managed to grab hold of Chocola's tail.

A muffled "Woah" came from both of the foxes as they struggled. After all of the work Vanilla had done for the day, he wasn't sure how much longer he could hold on.

The two Team Dapper members, however, had no illusions about the situation, and were already leaping into action.

"Fett! Whirlwind!" Noodle shouted as she prepped for a leap.

Without hesitation, the farfetch'd whipped up a small cyclone and pushed it towards the eevee. As the winds enveloped them, it began to lift them into the air and hold them aloft, but it could not do so for long.

As the whirlwind gently moved the pair up and away from the cliff, Noodle sprang into action. Using all of her might, she leaped past the pair and into the opposing canyon wall. Rebounding off of the far wall, she aimed herself at the two foxes.

Colliding as softly as possible, Noodle wrapped herself around the pair. Her momentum mostly spent, it was clear that the three of them would never reach the ledge. Instead of accepting that fate, the Furret did the unthinkable. She unfurled herself as quickly as she could, flinging the foxes forward just enough for them to land on the path.

Chocola and Vanilla both took a spill as they tumbled towards the relative safety of the ground. Noodle, however, was not so lucky, and she plummeted into the darkness below.

It was then that the three remaining pokemon noticed something odd. Instead of hearing the fateful splash they were all expecting from the furret's selfless act, they heard nothing over the dull din of the water below.

Fett was the first to peer over the edge. "Noodle!?"

"Um..." The slightly damp, but otherwise unharmed furret replied. She was standing in the middle of the raging river around her as though the body of water were no more than a mere puddle. "What?"

As Noodle slowly rose up and out of the water, the head of a quagsire appeared beneath her.

"Boss!?" The two team members shouted in unison.

Team Dapper's boss, Mister Erigsly had finished his work and was ready to head back towards the canyon entrance. But, being a water type, he could hardly pass up the chance to swim back instead.

It was just pure luck that he happened to be nearby during Noodle's daring rescue. Or so he said. Despite the scolding he gave his underlings about endangering other pokemon, we was content with the fact that no-one was hurt.

"So, now that that's all out of the way, do you suppose we could get a look at that trinket you were so willing to risk your life for, Miss Chocola?" Mister Erigsly asked.

Chocola was carefully laid the gem out in front of the encircled pokemon.

The gem itself, despite being somewhat shiny, and almost perfectly round, was an entirely unremarkable brownish-black color.

"What is it?" Asked Fett.

"I don't know!" Chocola admitted. "But I don't care, I like it!"

"Well, if that fulfills Fett's promise, then I think we can mark this whole thing off as a success then, don't you think?" the furret prompted.

Vanilla looked at Chocola who was now holding the round stone up to the light. "I do believe that we are satisfied, Miss Noodle. And thanks, again, for the rescue! You guys are amazing!"

"Think nothing of it, young Vanilla. It is all in a day's work for Team Dapper!" Mister Erigsly beamed.

And with that, the two groups departed. Both with their tasks complete, and one who would soon be late for lunch if they didn't return home before long!


	16. Chocola's Secret

Following lunch and a board game that Reiga swore came from the human world, Vanilla's fatigue finally caught up to him. Curled up on one of the living room cushions, the eevee settled down for a siesta, fully intent on waking up before dinner was served.

Oddly enough for Chocola, she too felt that a nap was in order. Or rather, she didn't feel like doing anything without the eevee. Tossing and turning on her own cushion, she eventually gave up the prospect of rest, however. Instead, she found herself content with just looking over the other fox's sleeping form.

He'd called himself her friend, that much was certain. After he threw his own life on the line for her sake, she believed every word of it. So why was she still hesitant to tell him the truth? The longer she waited, the harder it would be on Vanilla.

The eevee already had enough on his plate, right? Could she really give him something else to worry about? But then there was the discussion he had with the farfetch'd. It was only a matter of time before he left to join up with a guild, or something.

Or something…

An insane idea began forming in her head. Maybe, just maybe, it would actually work. But was she sure she should even try? Just watching the gentle rise and fall of Vanilla's breathing was enough to settle her decision.

The building excitement drained the afternoon drowsiness out her system and Chocola silently jumped off of her cushion and made her way upstairs.

* * *

Even after Vanilla awoke, the house remained oddly quiet. The reason for such silence was not lost on Reiga, who suspected that it was due to some event from the pups' earlier escapades. The fact that Chocola had simply retired to her room for the quiet afternoon was proof enough.

While Chocola hid away in her room, Reiga instead challenged Vanilla to another game of checkers. He had been soundly defeated the first time, but he seemed to be getting a handle on the basics of piece maneuvering by now. There were other games she would prefer to use as a gauge, but the complexity she'd grown used to in the human world was mostly absent here, at least in the realm of boardgames. The fact that even the youngest humans had access to surprisingly complex challenges was largely what made humans, and subsequently human-trained pokemon, forces to reckoned with.

But checkers would have to suffice for now. "So have you made a decision yet?"

"Not yet…" Vanilla started as he successfully jumped another piece. "There's just so much I still don't know."

"Such as?"

"Well, for starters, I need to get stronger, I think. Both physically and, um tactically, I guess?"

"Oh?" Reiga said, blocking one of Vanilla's pieces in.

"I heard that the guilds can train pokemon how to fight, but I'm not sure if joining a guild is the correct decision. Even if I did, training could take quite some time, and that's the one thing I'm sure I don't have…"

Reiga was a bit surprised at his assessment, almost more so than his blocking her from making a king piece. "If the guilds aren't an option, what would you do then?"

"I suppose I'll have to find someone else to teach me how to fight. Are there any pokemon in town that could teach me?"

"I'm not sure…" Reiga lied, knowing full well the answer. Vanilla had missed her feint as she kinged another piece anyway. The look on his face hinted that he'd noticed it, but by then could do nothing about the piece. "But I'm confident you'll find something soon enough."

"Thanks, Reiga!"

With that, the game continued in silence. Reiga still won, as it would do no good to go easy on the child, but his skill was improving rapidly. In time, he may even beat her, but as the eevee said, time was the one commodity that neither of them had in great amounts.

Dinner was also a subdued affair. Chocola made short work of her charti-chilan berry sauce and topo berry noodles, and headed right back upstairs once she was done.

"Is Chocola feeling well?" Vanilla asked in concern.

"I don't think she's come down with something."

"Then why has she been avoiding me since we got back?"

"Well, everyone needs space now and then." Reiga suggested as she removed their plates from the table. "But in this case, I believe that this is something Chocola must work out on her own."

"So, then, there's nothing I can do to help?"

"Afraid so, Little One. When she's ready for your help, she'll let you know." Reiga admitted, only to see Vanilla's ears droop a bit. "In the meantime, though, would you like to help with the dishes?"

Thoroughly distracted, Vanilla hopped onto the counter with an excited, "Sure! I've never 'done dishes' before! What do I do?"

"For starters, we're going to need some warm water. So we're going to need some flint and that pot over there…"

* * *

Despite how tired Vanilla's muscles felt, his mind was anything but. Thoughts of guilds, and fighting, but most of all, his family, filled his head.

He was so alone with his thoughts, Vanilla almost missed the quiet "Psst." Coming from the stairs. "You're still awake, right?" Chocola whispered her question.

Unsure why whispering was needed, Vanilla played along with a wry grin. "If I was, I wouldn't be able to answer."

"Oh, right…" Chocola said as she sat down in front of Vanilla's cushion. "How are you doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you know… we kind of cut it close out there today, and, well, I just wanted to apologize for getting you into that situation."

"Apology accepted, I guess, but it isn't necessary. I couldn't hold it against you." Vanilla admitted. "We _did_ manage to secure the treasure, after all. Besides, I've got the feeling that I'll be seeing more of _that_ in the near future, whether I want to or not."

Chocola mulled over the eevee's words before getting up. "Come on upstairs for a bit, I want to show you something." She said, motioning for the stairs.

"But-"

"Don't worry, this won't take long." Chocola stated. 'I hope…' she thought to herself.

Upstairs, Chocola led the way to her room. It was pitch black at the moment, forcing Chocola to guide Vanilla towards a spot in the center of the room.

"Close your eyes!"

"What? Why?"

"Just close them, okay!"

Chocola pushed past Vanilla and began shuffling with something. Even through his closed eyelids, he could sense that some moonlight had flooded the room.

"Okay, you can open them…" Chocola finished.

Doing as instructed, Vanilla was greeted with a sight he could only compare to the cave he'd visited on his first adventure with the vixen. Scattered about her room lay all manner of shiny stones and multifaceted gems, each reflecting and refracting the moonlight until the walls and ceiling looked like the Chocola's own personal star-scape.

"Oh, myyy…" was all Vanilla could say as he turned around a few times in an attempt to take the whole view in. "I've never seen anything like this, Chocola! 'Amazing' doesn't do it justice!"

"Thanks! This is just about everything I've ever collected during my treasure hunts. I-I just wanted you to see them like they're supposed to be seen before-" Chocola cut herself off.

Vanilla didn't understand, by the tone of her voice, she made it sound as though this was the last time they'd ever see each other. "Before? Chocola, this isn't about me needing to leave to help my family is it? I promise I'll come back and visit from time to time. I swear!"

"No! This isn't about that at all. Not really…" Chocola admitted as she turned to face the moon outside.

Even in the relative darkness, Vanilla couldn't have missed the gleam of tears running down her cheeks as she did so. "You're my friend, Chocola. You can talk to me."

"T-that's just it! I've been a terrible friend!"

Vanilla tried to approach. "I don't underst-" He was cut off when Chocola turned to face him as a soft light surrounded her form. Before his very eyes, his friend transformed away from the image of the eevee he'd known over the last few days and into something else.

Her coat darkened to black, and the cream-colored tips turned crimson. Chocola's fur was longer, the tuft of hair on her head, more prominent. Before long, only the unmistakable form of a zorua stood before him.

"I-I'm a horrible friend. I was never an eevee, I lied, was lying to you, the whole time. Ever since we first met. Now you know. I'm not the eevee you're friends with." Chocola revealed as she sat down to rub the tears out of her eyes. "A-and if you never want to be friends after this, I-I'll understand…"

Vanilla simply got up and walked next to his friend. "Chocola is Chocola."

"W-What!?" the zorua said, slightly dumbfounded.

"Chocola is Chocola." He said again as he sat down against the vixen. "It doesn't matter what you look like. I didn't become friends with you just because you looked like an eevee, I befriended you because I liked all the little adventures we went on during my short time here. I've enjoyed your company in a way I've never experienced before, and I'd never give that up just because you didn't look the way you did when we first met. If pokemon did that all the time, they'd never be able to have friends on account of how much an evolution changes someone, right?"

The zorua sat there in shock for a moment. This had never happened with any of the other pokemon in town. Every time she'd copied their forms, they always became angry or upset. Always. "That's probably the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me!" She said, her spirits rising with every word. "You're sure you're not mad at me for lying to you?"

"Of course not. I mean, I'd always assumed you had your own reasons. Kind of like how I didn't discuss my situation to you until it was too late. Besides, that skill of yours is kind of what zorua are known for, I couldn't possibly hold that against you."

Chocola had just finished drying her cheeks off by the time she figured out exactly what her friend was saying. "Wait!? You _knew_!?" She said while looking at Vanilla suspiciously. As the eevee simply nodded in affirmation, Chocola realized that Reiga had been right once more. "How long? Was it my tail? Tails are always the hardest part!"

"Hmm, no. It wasn't the tail. But to answer your question, I suppose I've always known. Well, _suspected_ anyway. And it wasn't because your disguise failed, per se."

"Then what?"

"If I had to put my paw on it, it was because of your creative additions." Chocola was squinting evilly at him now. "Now don't get me wrong, your changes were," Vanilla coughed, "very appealing. But it was your eyes. It's likely only another eevee would notice, but your irises were always the same deep, sky-blue as they are now. Eevees, on the other paw, almost always have eyes that are a purplish-brown color."

Chocola sat back in embarrassment, she's made such a rookie mistake. And to top it off, she'd been living in her own worst case scenario for no reason whatsoever. The whole situation was just…

Sighing, Chocola let out a giggle before she summed up the situation. "Next time, just promise to tell me if I'm doing a disguise wrong, okay? It'll save us both a lot of misery, I'm sure.

Thinking back to the fact that he was forced to tell his story only after she'd been mistaken for him, he had to agree. "Sure, I'd be happy too!"

Crises averted, and Chocola couldn't be happier. She'd almost never planned to get this far, honestly. Almost.

"Oh, wait!" the zorua started excitedly. "I've got one more thing to show you!" Diving under her bed, she pulled out a small box that had been tucked away beneath.

Placing it between them, she turned it so that the opening faced Vanilla.

"I've never shown this collection to anyone else…" Chocola added before prying off the lid.

Inside, there were a multitude of tiny blackened orbs, all of them around the same size, and all of them perfectly round. Two of them, however, were bound in string. "Hey, these look just like the gem we found today!"

"Yep." Chocola admitted, pulling the two bound gems out of the box. "This _is_ the one from today." She said as she moved the one in her left paw forward.

Vanilla had to take her word for it. Even in the direct moonlight, is was still too dark for him to discern any differences between the two.

"Here, take it." She said while offering him the gem.

"Are you sure? I didn't do much to get this one. You were the one that dove after it."

"Well, you did dive right after me, I guess, so I owe you one, but that's beside the point. I'm giving this to you under one condition."

The eevee tilted his head in confusion as to where the conversation was heading. "Oh?"

"When the day comes where you have to leave, I want you to use this so that you always have something to remember me by. Can you promise me that?"

"Of course, Chocola." Vanilla said sincerely. "I doubt I'll ever be able to forget you, even if I wanted to." He continued with a smile. "But I promise that I'll always remember you."

With that, Vanilla accepted her offering. "And I'll wear this one, so that way, we'll both have a promise to keep!"

"What about all of the other ones?"

"Guess we'll just have to make more friends!" Chocola stated, giggling once more. She doubted she could remember the last time she'd felt this way but was glad that she had an official token to remember this moment.

Closing the box and shoving it back under the bed, she turned to find a shadow towering behind Vanilla.

"What's this?" Reiga said in a commanding tone. It didn't sound like a question. "I seem to have found two pokemon that are supposed to be in bed…"

Taking the hint, the two foxes kept their rebuttal short. "Sorry, Ma'am!"

"Darn right, you're sorry! Now, off to bed with you, for real this time!"

Replies of "Yes Ma'am!" and "Right away Ma'am!" were offered in stereo as Chocola dove beneath her covers, and Vanilla dashed out of the room.

"That's what I thought…" Reiga finished as she left to return to her previous task.

* * *

'Unlikely to separate your C and our V now. Deviation? Regardless, the next phase is ready, despite difficulty. -R'


	17. Training Montage

After breakfast and morning chores were done, Chocola decided to leave their next adventure to Vanilla. Needless to say, she was only mildly surprised he didn't immediately suggest treasure hunting.

"Are there any guilds around here we can ask about getting stronger?" Vanilla asked.

Chocola held up her nose. "Please, we don't need a guild! If they were so strong they wouldn't need the help of my dad all of the time."

Vanilla had to admit that that made sense. Sort of. "Well then, what do you suggest?"

"Hmmm…" Chocola said while rubbing her chin while deep in thought. "I know! I can help train you!."

"You know how to fight?"

"Well, no." She admitted. "But I've watched daddy enough times that I must have learned something, right?"

* * *

Not two hours into Chocola's 'training' did they realize the truth.

Chocola shook her head in frustration. "Aww, why isn't this working? I could have sworn I knew more of daddy's tenets…"

"It's alright, Chocola." Vanilla said as he attempted to shake the dizziness from his own head. The last attempt had left him spinning away from his makeshift target. The tied up stick simply stood there, mocking him. "Can we ask Reiga?"

"No!" the vixen shouted. "I mean, no…" She finished softly.

"Why not? She's worked with your father for years, correct? She should know some of these tenets. She's also from the human world, and there are many legends explaining how human-trained pokemon learn to excel at combat. She should know a thing or two, at least."

"Because well, I don't want to face her smug grin when she turns out to be right again…" Chocola muttered.

"I didn't catch that last part…" Vanilla meekly admitted.

"I just don't want to ask, all right! First, she'll gloat that she knows more than me about this stuff, and about dad, but then she'll top it off by berating me about how I've avoided studying daddy's teachings!"

"Oh, I didn't know."

Chocola sighed in exasperation. She shouldn't get mad at the eevee. It wasn't his fault she hated studying. "Look, we can keep it as a final option, okay? There are still plenty of pokemon we can ask in town. I'm sure they'll help."

"You're sure 'who' will help with 'what'?" Reiga asked as she entered the back yard with a simple wooden rake.

"We were hoping that some pokemon in town would be willing to assist me with my problem."

"Vanilla, Ixnay on the ellin-tay eiga-ray!"

"Oh?"

"Well, Miss Reiga," Vanilla started, ignoring Chocola's plea, "I still need someone to teach me how to get stronger. But with that group of pokemon still hanging around looking for eevees to round up, I don't think it's a good idea for me to wander around town…"

"I wouldn't worry about that, Vanilla. The townsfolk wouldn't just hand you over without a fuss."

"They wouldn't?" Vanilla asked for clarification.

"Of course not. Since you've been here, the populace has been enjoying a peaceful few days of _not_ being terrorized by little foxes named Chocola."

"Hey!"

"And word's spread that _you_ are the reason, dear Vanilla. So no, they wouldn't give that, or you, up for all the world." Reiga teased. "Now if you're going to go, you'd better hurry. Take too long, and you won't make it back before lunch."

"Thanks, Reiga!" Vanilla said as he sprang up to leave. Anything was better than throwing himself at the bundle of sticks that made up his surprisingly agile target. "Come on, Chocola!"

"Coming, Vanilla!" Chocola called out before passing Reiga. "You just love taunting me, don't you?"

"Little, Chocola, you have no idea…" Reiga admitted with the smug smile Chocola knew was coming. "Now then, off you go! Adventure awaits and what-not."


	18. New Direction

"Why hello there, Chocola!" Pakki said as the zorua entered her shop. "Here to pick up more groceries?"

"Hehehe, Nope! Not this time!" Chocola grinned as Vanilla followed her into the store. "We're here for information!"

"I don't really deal in selling info, you know…"

"Would you please make an exception, Missus Pakki?" Vanilla pleaded. "This is kind of important."

Pakki sighed. "Well, how can I say no to a face like that, huh? What exactly are you two looking for?"

"We were hoping to find a pokemon willing to train other pokemon on how to fight!" Chocola exclaimed.

"Don't worry, Missus Pakki, we're more looking for how to defend ourselves from mean pokemon than anything else." Vanilla added at the shocked, slash horrified, look that appeared on the pachirisu's face.

Vanilla's speech doing only a little to calm her down from the thought of a weaponized version of Chocola running amok, Pakki replied. "Sorry, little Vanilla, but I don't think I can help."

"What, why?" Questioned Chocola.

"Well, it's not as though I _don't_ want to help you all," Pakki answered with at least a little honesty. "It's just that I don't know of any pokemon around here that are taking on students at the moment. Not unless you wanted to join a guild, anyway. But if you were thinking about that, you wouldn't be asking me about finding a master, now would you?"

"Darn." Chocola said as she headed for the exit.

"Thanks anyway, Missus Pakki." Vanilla sighed in frustration as he followed his friend.

* * *

Leaving the pachirisu's store behind, the two were left with a dilemma. "Now what?"

Vanilla sat down for a moment while he recalled the rest of their trip. "Well so far, we've got seven 'don't know's', one primeape that only works with fighting types, and a guild that specializes in carpentry, and the tiny police station that should _really_ consider hiring more than one officer if they want to reliably cover the whole valley. Are you sure that was everyone?"

"Everyone worth talking to, anyway. I could have sworn that the Mighty Oak guild handled more than, well, oak…" Chocola said in defeat. "I guess, if you really want too, we can go back and ask-"

"Why, if it isn't the one and only Chocola. I feel as though fate is smiling upon me, just as your very presence is guaranteed to bring a smile upon this very face of mine." The vixen was called out in a singsong voice.

"Ugh. What do you want, Clementine?" Chocola asked while rolling her eyes.

"Do you think so little of me, my dear, sweet Chocola, to assume that I'd need some ulterior motive in which to engage you in conversation?"

"Yes." The zorua said flatly.

"If you must know, I'm attempting to come to your aid, Dearest Vixen." Clementine declared.

"Oh. Joy."

"Indeed! I've heard of the difficulties you've faced on your quest to find a strong pokemon, for whatever reason, and as it just so happens, I have a means of assisting you."

"Why should we trust you?" Chocola tried to make her disdain more apparent.

"I think we should at least hear him out, Chocola." Vanilla interjected. "It's not like we've had a whole lot of options to choose from recently."

"Fine. Get on with it, Clementine."

"Ohoho, my dear Chocola, not so fast. If you want information to help your, um, eevee friend there, _I'll_ need something in return."

As much as she hated wherever this line of bargaining might go, Chocola was finding it hard to ignore the sad pleading look on Vanilla's face. "Fine, whatever. But it better not be anything gross, or so help me…" She said as the shadows around her seemed to grow.

"Please, Chocola, I am a gentle-fox, above all else. My only request is that, when you go on your little soiree, you take me with you."

"What? Why?" Now the vixen was really confused.

"And miss out on a chance to spend the day with my favorite fox?" Clementine said teasingly. "But I digress, my real reason for going is that I, too, wish to meet with her."

"I should have known."

"Yes, I wish to gaze upon the pokemon whose body is rumored to be terrifyingly beautiful to behold! Or was it a beautiful terror? I'm not sure there is much of a distinction. Anyway, do we have a deal?"

"Fine…" Chocola reluctantly agreed. It wasn't as though it was really her choice, but she was willing to make the sacrifice if it meant that Vanilla got what he wanted.

"That's the spirit! The reason that none of the townsfolk wished to recommend her, is that she has a very sordid relationship with the town. She did try to destroy it once, after all."

"Wait, you don't mean…"

"Your intuition is astonishingly correct, Dearest. The Terror of Jocundale still lives atop of the Everpeak. Presumably to stare down upon us in a brooding manner, or so the stories go." Clementine added, oblivious to how bad his description sounded.

"And what makes you think she'd help Vanilla? My father defeated her a long time ago."

"That is precisely why, my dear Chocola, she will help _you_ now." Clementine declared with a sly smile.

"Wait, didn't you say that the Everpeak was dangerous?" asked Vanilla.

"Yep, and so is the pokemon we need to talk to, Vanilla." Chocola replied, cautiously glancing toward the Everpeak. "If we're going to do this, we'll have to meet with the one and only Mewtwo."

"That's correct." Clementine surmised. "So? When do we leave?"


	19. Everpeak Ascent

Both Chocola and Vanilla were waiting out in front of the vixen's house in the cool pre-dawn air. If Clementine didn't show up before sunrise, they were going to leave without him, promise or no.

"Well, why we wait, did we get everything packed?" Chocola asked.

"If you mean all of the snacks, then yes." Vanilla answered as he peered into his bag.

"What? Why didn't Reiga pack the rope like I asked?"

"Probably because none of us possess thumbs…" Vanilla observed. "Will we need it?"

"Probably not. But we'd sure look cool carrying it all of the way up the mountain, right?"

"I suppose so… Oh, hey, I think I can see Clementine!" Vanilla said as he waved at the tailed figure down the trail, the figure's fur color somewhat hidden in the sullen red light of morning.

"Good morning, dearest Chocola! I hope this early hour has treated you well." The vulpix greeted upon his approach.

"Morning, Clementine!" Vanilla replied when Chocola didn't.

Not wanting to spend the day being the only one talking to, or rather, trying to ignore, the vulpix, Chocola thought she better lay down some ground rules. "Alright, Clementine, if we're going to do this, I need you to do three things."

"Anything for you, my dear." Clementine said with a curt bow.

"Okay, first off, no more trying to make a pass at me. Keep it up and I'll mirage you right off the mountain, got that?"

"Ever so harsh, Miss Chocola…"

"Second, none of the mushy stuff. No poems, or love-songs, or anything like that."

"But-" the vulpix attempted to dispute.

"No. You wanted to come. These are my rules, so either you follow them or you go back home."

Clementine sighed. "As you wish, dear Chocola. And might I ask what the third item is?"

"You have to acknowledge Vanilla. He's my friend, and you'll treat him with the respect he deserves."

"Oh, my apologies, Chocola." Clementine acknowledged as he sidled up to the eevee, embracing him in an almost brotherly hug. "Why, by the end of this journey, I surmise that we'll be the best of companions!"

"Um-hmm…" Was all that Chocola said in response as she turned to don her bags. "Well then, now that that's out of the way, we can go!"

The group was mostly quiet as they traveled to the base of the mountain. Usually, the only things stirring at this hour were the wingull delivery-birds and the morning chill.

"Alright, Clementine. We're here." Chocola started once they reached the base of the mountain. "So where, exactly, is this mewtwo supposed to be hiding?"

Clementine looked up towards the top of the mountain. Wisps of mist were gently rising from the surface as the sun began warming up the rocks on the eastward face. "Ah, yes, well. Do you see that shadowy area between those two upper ridges? This mewtwo is rumored to live near there. Once the sun rises a bit more, we should be able to see the ledge a bit better, my dear."

"Hmm, well, I think the route I was planning does get us close, but we may have to improvise once we get to that steep section up there." Chocola stated whilst pointing towards a point on the shadow's meridian, where the slope began to steepen into cliffs. "Think you can handle that, Vanilla?"

The eevee gulped at the sheer enormity of the landmass before him. One thing was for sure, the mountain was much more impressive up-close than any other time he'd ever seen it. Just looking at it was enough to summon a rising panic from within, whispering that the ground was best when even and flat beneath his feet. However, Vanilla had a mission to see through, and he'd never let a little uneasiness keep him from his goal. "I'll manage."

"All right then," Chocola began, "I'll lead the way."

And with that, the three started up the narrow, winding path that marked the beginning of their assent.

"So, Dearest Chocol-" Clementine attempted as he sidled up next to the zorua.

"Not now, Clementine. We've got a long way to go, and I just don't feel like dealing with you just yet…"

"As you wish, Chocola." Effectively shut down, the vulpix backed up until he was shoulder-to-shoulder with Vanilla.

Clementine looked at the eevee. What could his Chocola possibly see in the tan and cream-colored fox? It obviously wasn't strength or anything, was it? By the vulpix's standards, the pokemon standing next to him didn't seem to have any outstanding features at all, yet here he was wearing matching necklaces along with the only girl who never failed to refuse Clementine's advances.

"Do you like it?" Vanilla asked, upon noticing that Clementine was staring at his necklace.

"I suppose so… Though, I couldn't help but notice that Chocola is wearing one just like it. How did you manage that?"

"She gave it to me!" Vanilla said while sporting his trademark grin.

'Ugh, the things I put up with…' Clementine thought to himself. Whispering, he rephrased his question. "No, I mean, how did _you_ get into her good graces? What was your approach? Your angle? Come on, you can tell me."

"You want me to tell you how I became friends with Chocola?" Vanilla was a little confused at the question.

Clementine just nodded a somewhat-frustrated yes.

"Well. When she found me, I had kind of messed up another pokemon's flowers, and instead of letting me get in trouble, she helped me get away before the other pokemon noticed. We helped fix the mess up later, of course, but after that, we just sort of went on one little adventure after another. Although, now that I think about it, I'd consider us friends from the moment we met."

"Hmm… Sort of a reverse damsel in distress situation, huh? Never thought of that, though I guess a tomboy like her would be into that. Surely that can't be the only thing, though." Clementine stated while shaking his head in agreement with his conclusion.

"What? Um, I'm not sure I follow."

"Don't worry about that, friend. Just talking to myself. But, I think I'd like to hear more about you. Where are you from? I think I'd recall if a new eevee family was in town."

"Oh, um, well… Hey look at that!" Vanilla said as he neared a crest that overlooked the valley below. "I'm pretty sure I can see my house from up here!"

Clementine was pretty sure that the eevee was trying to pull the wool over his eyes, but his dumb grin was hard to read. Only after he looked at the region Vanilla was pointing to, did he discover the stall tactic. The other fox had just gestured to at least half of Exile. "Very funny. Well, I'm sure you know that whatever secret you're hiding can't remain one forever. Nobody keeps secrets from Clementine for long…"

Vanilla just rubbed the back of his head while laughing unconvincingly.

"Hey!" Chocola shouted back. "What's with all of the whispering? You not filling Vanilla's head with the weird stuff that goes through your own head, are you?"

"What? You know me better than that, don't you, Dearest Chocola?"

"No, I really don't. Now get your rear ends off the ground and let's get a move on! We've still got a long way ahead of us before we can even _think_ about stopping for snacks."

"Aww…" came three replies, two from the males and one from Chocola herself once she realized what she had just said. But nevertheless, the trio decided it was for the best if they soldiered on as planned.

* * *

As the group ascended, they found themselves clear of the timberline, and as the trees dropped further down, and away, with every step, so too did the temperature fall. To make matters worse, it appeared as though the weather was struggling to stay decent.

Vanilla was certain he'd never really appreciated his own fur before. The wind was picking up, and its biting chill seemed to enjoy nipping at his nose.

"How are you doing back there, Vanilla?"

"I-I'm fine…"

"I'm also doing well, dearest Chocola!"

"I don't care about _you_ , you're a fire type, remember?"

"As observant as always, my dear."

Before she could reply, the sun's light was masked by cloud cover. Worse still, the clouds' undersides seemed to be precipitating something. With the current frigid temperature, that could only be one thing. Snow.

"Oh, no…" Chocola said as she stopped in her tracks.

"What's the matter? Is it time for a rest?" Vanilla asked as he caught up.

"I-I think we should turn back, the weather's getting bad…" Chocola said, worried how long it would take them to reach a safe haven.

"Are you sure? We've come so far already, and time is of the essence."

"I'm afraid I agree with your Vanilla, my sweet. It would be a shame to come so far without something to show for it, yes?"

Chocola wanted to see the mewtwo as well, but even then, she also knew that the Everpeak's storms were the stuff of legends. It was odd that there was a storm like that at this time of year, but that was beside the point. "Well, we might try going a little farther, but if those clouds get too much closer, we'll have to find shelter."

"I can be your bastion against the cold, my dear. All you have to do is ask." Clementine suggested with a syrupy smile.

"I appreciate the offer, but it isn't the cold that worries me…" Chocola stated. A gust of wind blowing down on them suddenly as if to make her point.

Heading off down the trail, the wind only grew more chaotic, whipping about in every direction but what could possibly be considered a safe one. The mountain trail wasn't necessarily steep here, but no one knew how long it would take them to recover from a fall. Not wanting to think about what would happen if they _didn't_ recover, the group pressed on. As they came around a significant bend in the trail, a break in the cliffs ahead revealed a small copse of short trees standing in the distance, seemingly unfazed by the winds.

"Come on," Chocola indicated to the other two, "Over there!" She shouted over the wind.

Not too soon, too, as the very first flakes of snow began to sink to the ground in surprisingly large, wet clumps.

The small patch of timber was just off of Chocola's trail, but the group managed to reach the windbreak without losing their footing. While the windbreak seemed a gift from Arceus itself, their other discovery was beyond such divine interventions. Once inside, the temperature also improved, if only a bit.

"Oh, wow! A hot-spring!" Vanilla observed. "I've heard about these!"

"I guess the wind was keeping the scent scattered." Chocola added after wondering why she hadn't noticed the strong-smelling mineral water before now. "Well, I suppose this is as good a place as any to take a break."

Vanilla was all too happy to shed more weight from his snack-bag, even if it meant that he was only changing where he was storing it. "Say, Chocola, how much farther do you think we have to go?"

Grabbing one of her own berries, Chocola peered beyond their wooden veil, where the snow was already beginning to pile up on the ground outside. Going back now would be difficult, to say the least. Looking up the side of the mountaintop, however, revealed that they should be quite close to mewtwo's location by now. "Well, we'll have to wait out the storm, but I think we're almost there."

The zorua's observations were interrupted by Clementine, who had wandered by the other side of the hot springs. "Chocola, dearest, you should probably take a look at this!"

'What now', was all she could think as she wandered over. Not twenty paces beyond the trees, there appeared to be a gap in the rocks, just beyond the trees. While normally it would have been of little interest, it didn't take Chocola long to see what had caught the vulpix's eye. Beyond the gap, the snow was no longer falling.

Each flake appeared to be frozen in mid-air.


	20. Mawe

"What do you think is causing it?" Vanilla asked as he pushed a suspended snowflake to the side. The little puff of snow was cold and wet to the touch, but it refused to move farther than he was willing to push it.

"I think this is really more of a who, than a what, Vanilla." Chocola observed. "But to answer your question, only a really powerful psychic move could manipulate this many objects at once."

"A psychic move?"

"Yep," Chocola answered, "Which probably means that Mewtwo is close."

"Do you think she'll accommodate us, dearest Chocola?"

"Oh, _now_ you start having doubts?!" The vixen glared at Clementine.

"I don't think it'll be a problem. I think she is inviting us in." Vanilla interjected.

The vulpix scoffed. "And how, pray tell, do you know that?"

"Because we're already well within her range, and she hasn't attacked us yet.".

Clementine looked around at all of the suspended snowflakes hovering around them. If the mewtwo was indeed holding them all in place, there was no way she didn't know that the three of them were trespassing. The eevee was right, they were expected to continue. "Well then, best not keep the lady waiting, yes?"

When the narrow passage widened out into a shelf of grass-covered rock, the group found the creature they had been searching for. Her eyes were closed in concentration as she hovered in cross-legged meditation, her deep-purple tail waved languidly behind her.

Upon the trio's approach, mewtwo floated into a standing position, her now-open eyes aglow with raw psychic power. /Who dares believe themselves worthy of entering my domain?\ The telepathic push rang inside their collective heads.

Silence filled the tense air for a few moments before Vanilla broke the silence. "Our apologies, Master Mewtwo. We don't know what would qualify as worthiness to you."

/You came not to test your mettle against one such as I? No. I sense you each have your own reasons for your approach. One, a noble cause, another for personal reasons, and yet another, well…\ the mewtwo used telekineses on Clementine, lifting him into the air with a yelp. /I believe I know what _you_ want…\ She finished, bringing the vulpix face to face.

"Clementine!" Vanilla shouted before the telepathic link that the group had been sharing had cut out and the same power that held their friend aloft locked them in place.

The link must have remained connected to the vulpix, because it appeared as though he and the mewtwo were still conversing. "Oh!?" Clementine started excitedly. "Yes, that's- Oh, oh my!?" he continued. The airborne fox's fur stood on end with whatever the last topic had covered. "But that's-!?" was the last thing spoken aloud before the mewtwo placed Clementine back on the ground.

"Um, uh I, uh, I need to, um. IthinkIleftmylaundryonbackhome, bye!" Clementine stuttered out before making a beeline out of the psychic bubble.

/Now that _that's_ out of the way,\ the mewtwo stated, through a new telepathic link while releasing the two from her grasp, and before the two remaining could question anything, /I am Mawe, and I believe you have a request, do you not?\

"Before we get to that, and as much as I find it entertaining, is Clementine going to be alright? I've never seen him so shaken up before." Chocola interrupted.

/I'm positive, the orange one will recover, in time…\

Vanilla looked a little bit more relaxed, or was it relieved, upon hearing the news. Chocola couldn't help but admire the fact that her friend cared for those who'd barely give him the time of day.

"Please, Miss Mawe, I was hoping that you would know how to become stronger. I need to be able to save and protect those I care about!" Vanilla declared with a deep bow. "Please! I beg for your assistance!"

/There is no need to prostrate yourself so, but, it is power you seek, yes? While I don't consider myself disciplined enough to train another, there might be another way…\ Mawe started to glow, her psychic power seeming to liquefy the ground beneath her. The small tremor was enough to upset the two foxes' balance., but the result of the mewtwo's actions became clear. Something began to emerge from the soil.

"Woah! Evolution stones!? And so many..." Chocola exclaimed, practically salivating at the sight. She recognized most of them through the various descriptions she'd heard, but there were some she'd never seen before.

/The easiest way for a pokemon to gain power is through evolution. Being an eevee, you have the luxury of choice. Before you lies one of every type of evolution stone, each as capable, on its own, as the Legendary Stone of your people.\ Mawe presented the assortment in a constant streaming cycle between the pups and herself.

Vanilla had never really thought about evolution before now. Normally, being the firstborn of his family, he'd get his father's job after evolving into an umbreon. If he'd been exceptionally lucky as a subsequent sibling, he might even snag a different evolution as one of the other council positions, should they retire. The Absol Brothers, had changed that, though, hadn't they? They were dark types, like his father, but to beat them, he'd either need to be a bug-type, fairy-type, or fighting-type. Vanilla found himself leaning towards the fighting stone.

/But I should warn you. Choose wisely, as there is no going back once you've made your decision. Evolution, such as this, is permanent. Making the wrong choice could doom those you care about when they need you most.\

Vanilla hesitated. He looked back at Chocola, who had had her own crises of identity only a few days ago. Could her really tell her it was okay if she could change her form at will, even if he wasn't willing to give up his own form? And what of his own future. Could any of the stones guarantee him a win against the absol? And what of the Council? Of what he believed to be his three real choices, at least one of them would ensure that he never became a member of the Eevolution Council. What would he do then? There were great many more things to consider than what he'd thought of before this trip.

Chocola interrupted his spiraling train of thought. "Whatever you choose, remember, Vanilla is Vanilla. I'll still be your friend, no matter what!"

/What loyalty your friend has… So? Your decision?\ Mawe said as she moved the three likeliest choices closer.

He truly was grateful for Chocola's support. "I-I'm sorry, Miss Mawe, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to pass."

"What!?" Chocola shouted in confusion. "After all of the effort we put into this, you just want to throw it all away?"

"It's not that I want to, it's just, well, I feel as though taking power like this is wrong. I don't want to have it just given to me. Even if I choose the right one, I still don't know how to fight. I wouldn't know how to use my new powers properly, and frankly, that scares me a little."

"But,-!?" Chocola started before cutting herself off. She didn't realize that Vanillas take on evolution was so different from her own. She could only ever evolve into a zoroark, so there was never a choice about it, but even then, she would still have the ability to change her form at will. To be stuck in one form forever? It was an idea that was bordering on terrifying. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap. If you think you should stay an eevee, then that's that."

"Thanks, Chocola. I'm glad you understand."

/Then is that your final decision?\ Mawe asked.

"I believe it is, Miss Mawe. There are just too many variables to risk everything on a gamble. We'll just have to find another way." Vanilla said as he turned to leave. "I apologize if we wasted your time and energy. Maybe, one day, I'll be able to compensate you for it."

/Hmm, I may hold you to that…\

And with that, the two foxes set about their return trip, thankful, at least, that the snow had stopped.

As they journeyed beyond the psychic veil, Mawe turned to the edge of her cliff. 'I suppose she was right, there is hope for him yet… speaking of which…' /You know I can sense you, right?\

Reiga appeared by the mewtwo's side. "My intention was not to hide from _you_ , Mawe. Besides, I think being cryptic suits you…"

/I'm not as fond of this round-about method as you are. Is there any particular reason why the boy is still unaware of the prophecy?\

"Because Zaho wishes it, of course. He's afraid it may influence his actions in unforeseen ways."

/But we're wasting so much time. If we could just tell them, we-\

"You're forgetting why you are here instead of with the others. We all have a job to do, and telling him of a possible future _isn't_ yours." Reiga stated honestly. "Speaking of which, have you any news on that front?"

A tiny green and white, vaguely pokemon-shaped doll appeared in mid-air. /No, I have not. I'm sorry.\ Mawe said before shifting the doll into Reiga's forepaws. /I can sense that a connection exists, but beyond that, nothing.\ Mawe observed that the lucario was lost in her memories while looking at the doll's face. /What does this doll mean to you, anyway.\

"That is for me to know." Reiga answered as she carefully tucked the stuffed toy into her satchel. "Although, I don't suppose I could stop you. If you tried to read my mind, that is…"

/NO! Um, I mean, no. You must not tempt me with such things.\

"Oh, you're just worried what Zaho will do to you if he found out you broke one of his tenets." Reiga teased.

A chill ran up the mewtwo's spine. /That… is not entirely wrong.\

"What about that thing with the vulpix? Didn't you read his mind?"

/Please, there was no reason to read _that_ one. His thoughts were written all over his face.\

"Well then," Reiga said with a raised eyebrow, "there may be hope for _you_ yet too, Mawe!" she finished before turning to leave herself. She had to make it home before the children did.


	21. New Goal

"Hey, do you think that Mawe would give me some of those Evolution Stones if I asked nicely?" Chocola asked as they started their descent, easily following the tracks made by Clementine.

"Maybe." Vanilla answered. "She'd probably be willing to part with the dark-type stone at the very least. Should we go back and ask her?"

Chocola thought about it for a while. "Nah. I don't really want a dark stone in order to evolve. And, while I'd love to add them to my collection, I think they could do some real good if given to the right pokemon."

"How so?" Vanilla inquired, curious.

"Well, for starters, not every pokemon is born healthy. Since evolution makes a pokemon stronger, even a sickly pokemon can live a normal life if it's able to evolve."

"Why don't their parents just ask for the Eevolution Council's help? With the Legendary Evolution Stone, you wouldn't need to find and dig out a specific stone for each pokemon."

"I don't know why they don't do that. All I know is that, with the number of evolution stones Mawe can dig up, she'd be able to give your council a run for its money." Chocola stated just before realizing what she just said. "Wait I didn't mean it like that!"

Vanilla sighed. "I know you mean well, Chocola…"

"Sorry. Well, speaking of which, now that we've turned Mawe down, what are you going to do now?"

"I'm not sure, honestly. I think it's clear that I'm in need of more information, but…"

"But what?"

"Well, I don't think I can get it in Jocundale. For the speed with which news of the coup traveled here, one would think that additional details would have surfaced by now."

"That's probably because stuff in Convocity doesn't really affect pokemon here too much."

"What do you mean?" Vanilla tilted his head in confusion.

"Think about it. Before I found you in the floettes' garden, when was the last time you traveled outside of the capital?"

"Honestly?" Vanilla pondered for a moment. "I can't recall ever leaving the city before."

"Hehe, see? You eevee's all seem to live in a different world!" Chocola teased.

"Hmm, you're probably right. If I want to know more about my situation, I have to go back to the source. I'll have to go back home…"

Chocola found herself thinking of excuses. Maybe she could convince him to stay, or remind him to train with Reiga. Any excuse to keep Vanilla there in Jocundale Valley would work. She was certain Vanilla was too nice to turn down an offer to stay, and yet…

The air was quiet save for the crunch of the snow beneath their feet, now thinning out as they left the higher elevations. "D-do you think I can come with you?" Chocola asked simply.

* * *

"Absolutely not!" had been Reiga's swift response once they had returned home. "I was ordered by your father to keep tabs on you and I can't do that if you put yourself in the middle of a civil war!"

"It's not a war, it's only a coup!" Chocola argued back.

"That's not important, Chocola!" the lucario shot back. "Your father wouldn't approve of it either way."

"But-!"

"No 'but's missy. The answer's still no!"

"Ugh!" Chocola shouted shortly before being told to go to her room.

Upon returning from her enforcement of Chocola's temporary punishment, Reiga returned to the living room. "I'm sorry you had to see that, Vanilla. I know she means well, but her father would never allow her to go with you. After he's lost so much already, Zaho can't afford to lose his only daughter too. I'm sure you can understand…"

"I sort of _do_ understand, Miss Reiga. I know that going back is dangerous, and frankly, I don't think I could stand the thought of Chocola getting hurt at my expense, either."

"Thanks, Vanilla." Reiga said as she patted him on the head. "I know it's only been for a short time, but I know we've both enjoyed your company. If this works out, I'm certain you could come back and visit anytime you want."

"Thank you too, Miss Reiga, for supporting me this entire time!"

"So? When do you plan on leaving? I'm sure I could arrange transportation if you'd like."

The eevee thought for a moment. "I'd like to leave as soon as possible, but I'm not sure I can accept your offer. I'm certain those two pokemon are still after me, and I wouldn't want to attract too much attention to myself before I can come up with a plan."

"Well then, in that case, I recommend leaving early tomorrow." Reiga suggested. "That way you can cover a decent amount of distance before too many other pokemon are awake. If they're still looking for you around here, you might be able to escape their search area without their knowing."

"Okay, I will!" Vanilla acknowledged excitedly.

"Anything else you think you'll need for your trip?"

"Hmm, now that you mention it…"


	22. Return

"Are you sure about this?" Reiga asked as she helped Vanilla with his pack.

"As sure as I'll ever be, I suppose." Vanilla admitted as he glimpsed a vixen-shaped shadow move around the upstairs window. "A shame Chocola can't come too, will she come down and see me off at least?"

"I'm afraid that our Chocola isn't one for goodbyes. Just finish what it is you set out to do and visit us as soon as possible, okay? We wouldn't want our little zorua to get lonely now, would we?"

"I guess not!" Vanilla laughed before sighing to himself. He wanted to see his friend one last time before returning home, at the very least. Who knows how long it will be until they can see each other again. "Well, then, I suppose it's time for me to go. Thanks again for everything, Miss Reiga."

"You're most welcome, Mister Vanilla." Reiga finished with a curt bow.

As the fox made his way down the path to the road, he looked back just in time to see the silhouette in the window shift once more. "I'll be back as soon as I can, Chocola, don't worry!" And with that, he put his home of the last week behind him.

The first leg of his journey was much the same as the route towards the Everpeak. No sense in taking the direct route back to the capital if there were pokemon still looking for him, after all. The only difference between then and now is that it felt quieter without anyone to keep him company, even if the trip to the mountain had been rather quiet the day before.

Early morning turned to sunrise, continued to late morning and, soon enough, Vanilla felt his stomach grumble. "Time for breakfast." He said to no one in particular.

Doffing his pack and opening it, a smile broke out across the eevee's face. Reiga had managed to sneak some sandwiches into his bag. A simple, yet filling, jam-filled variety, but after Vanilla finished the first triangle, he heard a stomach growl.

It wasn't his.

"Hello!?" Vanilla asked the still-lingering shadows in alarm. "Who's there?"

"Ugh! I give up!" Cried a familiar voice as its source crept out of the nearby bushes.

"Chocola!? But you're-"

"Save it, fluff-ball. I'm soooo hungryyyy." The zorua pleaded, hungrily eying the eevee's snack.

"Here," Vanilla said, taking the hint and offering Chocola the other sandwich. "Reiga made extra."

Chocola made short work of her breaded triangle, practically inhaling it.

"I thought you were prevented from coming along?"

"Oh, well, yeah, obviously. But being told I couldn't do something hasn't stopped me before. Besides, I can't pass up an adventure!" Chocola beamed.

"Won't Reiga, or your dad, get mad at you for disobeying their orders?"

"I hope so! If daddy wanted a say, he should be home more often. And it's not like Reiga's my mom. She can only _suggest_ what I'm supposed to do. I just choose not to listen!" Chocola said with a smile as she started picking through Vanilla's pack in search of more food. All she could find were a few bluk and cheri berries.

"Hey don't eat those!"

"Why not?"

"I, um, kind of need them for my disguise…" Vanilla admitted sheepishly.

Chocola tilted her head to the side. She was no stranger to disguises but failed to connect the dots on this one.

"They're looking for eevees right? I thought I'd disguise myself to sneak by if I had to." He explained.

"Sneak by as what, a berry bush?" the vixen giggled.

"No? I'd use the berries to dye my fur, so that I looked like, well, you."

Chocola felt a massive grin spread across her muzzle before breaking out into a rolling laughter.

"What's wrong with that?"

"Oh, boy! That's the best thing I've heard in a while, Vanilla. I don't think anyone's tried disguising _themselves_ as a zorua before!"

"Well, what else am I supposed to do? I don't exactly have enough tails to pull off a vulpix look. I mean, I guess there's fennekin too, but I don't think I can fake the ears…"

"Hehehe! Then it's a good thing I came along after all." Chocola said with an evil smirk.

"Why? Do you have a better idea?"

"Just shush! And stand still!" Chocola added while trying her best to concentrate. She'd never tried this on anyone else before.

The lingering morning shadows seemed to deepen until they consumed the area around Vanilla. The swirling black clouds turned translucent shortly before wispily fading back into thin air.

"There…" Chocola declared a little woozily.

"Chocola!?" Vanilla shouted in concern.

The vixen just waved him off instead of replying. Holding her paw out in front of her and gesturing that Vanilla do the same.

Much to his surprise, his paw was now a very dark grey color. Turning and twisting himself to get a look at his new form confirmed that he had undergone some sort of transformation. Only his colors seemed to be far less saturated than that of his zorua friend.

"Do you like it?" Chocola asked once she'd recovered from her ability.

"This is great, Chocola!" Vanilla replied while testing the poofy-ness of the tuft of hair atop his head.

"Yeah, well don't get too used to it. I'll need to practice that one a bit more. Right now, I doubt it will last until lunch…"

"That's more than enough to fool any pursuit, I think. Thanks, Chocola!"

"It's still kind of a work in progress, though, so don't move too far away, and don't move too fast. But other than that, we should be good. What's the rest of the plan?"

"Well…" Vanilla started as he closed his pack up before Chocola could eat any more berries. "We continue down this path until…"

* * *

'I told you that wouldn't work… -R' Riega wrote into the stick she'd procured after discovering Chocola's ruse. The shadow was still up there, pacing her charge's room. Sure she could erase it, but something stopped the lucario from doing just that.

Zaho wouldn't be happy, of course. But there would be little she could do to prevent the vixen from escaping again. Besides, better that they find each other now rather than try and look for each other in a place like Convocity. They worked well enough together, so they should have a better chance of success now, right?

'We can't afford to misinterpret the prophecy this late in the game.' Reiga thought to herself as she picked up the doll from her bedside table. She had a lot riding on this venture, she always had.

The doll had been a gift once. From her trainer to her when she was just a riolu. She had lent it to Mawe on the small hope that some sort of psychic link still existed between it, her trainer, and herself. A backup plan of sorts in case the prophecy turned out to fail in its execution. Ultimately, it had been a dead end.

Just like they all would be should Zaho's plan fail…

"Best of luck, you two." Reiga wished the two foxes from afar. "You'll need it…" she finished, fearful for what the future may bring.


	23. Ingress

Chocola kept Vanilla disguised as much as possible while they made their way to the outskirts of Jocundale Valley. The disguise likely didn't fool any locals, but they played along anyway, which made the trickery all the more entertaining for the two foxes involved, giggling to themselves after each traveler had passed by. Their own little joke.

They quickly learned that they'd have to hide from the path if Chocola wanted to recharge her ability, but otherwise the trip was fairly entertaining, at least for them.

Every pokemon they passed likely had business to attend to, of some sort or another, but almost none of them paid any interest to the two mischievous zorua that seemed to giggle at everything.

By the end of the day, they'd finished off both a good amount of distance and their snacks. With night closing in, they decided that foraging would have to wait for morning. For now, they'd just have to find a place to camp out and rest.

A small clearing became the duo's grassy home for the night. After a quick breakfast and a resupplying forage run, they found themselves back on the road once more.

The second day provided almost as much entertainment as the first, but the novelty of tricking pokemon into thinking there were two tricksters was quickly wearing off. Between that and the fact that one side of the path was covered in some sort of nasty-smelling, thorny vine, boredom was a fairly real threat.

Luckily, it only lasted until around noon when the two came across something that piqued their interest once more. A large green shape seemed to be blocking the path. Or, at least, most of it, since there was still plenty of room to go around whatever it was.

"Hey, check it out Vanilla!" Chocola exclaimed as she jumped on top. "It's a snorlax!"

"What's he doing down here? And on the path no less?"

"I dunno…" The vixen replied as something caught her eye. "Hey wait-!"

"What is it?" Vanilla asked as he leaned on the snorlax to get a better look.

"I think there's a cave behind him!"

"Which raises the question again, why go to sleep here, of all places?"

"Maybe… he's hiding something?" Chocola thought aloud before jumping up and down on the creature's belly. "Hey, Mister Snorlax! Wake Up!"

"Chocola, that's rude!" Vanilla scolded.

"Hehehe. Sorry. It's not like he woke up, though…"

"That may be, but would you like it if someone woke you up by jumping all over you?" Vanilla explained while he stepped away from the slumbering pokemon.

Chocola jumped down as instructed, a little disappointed that she'd never find out what was behind the unconscious creature. "When do you think he- Woah!?" The ground shook beneath them just as Chocola stepped on the ground, causing her to nearly fall on her face. "Whoever's using Earthquake can stop now…" Chocola pleaded as she tried to recover without success.

Vanilla noticed that the shaking wasn't just a local phenomenon. Whole flocks of flying pokemon could be seen taking flight as far as the eye could see. "That's no move, I think it might be an _actual_ earthquake!"

Just as suddenly as the quaking started, it stopped. "That was rough…" Chocola observed as she dusted herself off. "Aww, the snorlax slept through _that_!?" She complained once she noticed that the unconscious pokemon was blissfully unfazed.

Before Vanilla could reply, a cry broke out further along the path. Someone was in trouble. "Come on!" he shouted while darting off in the sound's direction.

Chocola chased after him. "I thought we were trying to lay low!" Chocola cried.

Ignoring her, Vanilla kept running. It wasn't long before they found the source. "Someone, anyone, help! T-the bridge- My friend!" the little swinub called out.

"What can we do?" Vanilla asked in a huff as he approached the piglet.

"Um, follow me!" she said before taking off down one lane of the crossroads. The bridge along the path had apparently been damaged in the earthquake, a full half of it had fallen into the fairly turbulent river below. "I brought help, Ramen! Just hold on a bit longer!"

Down below, a shinx stood upon a small strip of land that had become recently displaced, and as such, was quickly being worn away by the current. "No offense, Pancake, but I was hoping for someone a little more, well, helpful!" He called back up with obvious sarcasm. "I don't suppose either of you can trick me back up top, can you?"

"Ugh, that's not how mirage's work!" Chocola shot back.

"That's what I thought… Pancake, if you would be so kind as to find a large flying type, or someone who knows Surf maybe, that would be gre-" Ramen was cut off by a large section of his rapidly dwindling island falling into the river.

"There's no time!" Vanilla said as he scanned the area for something, anything they could use. Spotting what he hoped was exactly that, something he might be able to use, he called out to the others. "Come on, I have an idea!"

"This is a tree." Chocola observed flately. The flora in question was a fairly massive piece of timber. "What exactly are we supposed to do with this? It would take us hours to get through it, even if we had cut!"

"The same thing that happened to the bridge also took out the support on the other side, right?" Vanilla said pointing to the nearly washed-out roots. "If we all work together, we should be able to bring it down!"

"Hold on, Ramen!" Pancake said before taking position at the base of the tree and started pushing.

Vanilla and Chocola stood to the swinub's sides to assist, but no manner of pushing seemed to budge the oak.

"Ugh, it isn't working!" Pancake said in frustration.

Thinking quickly, Vanilla came up with a new approach. "Quick, Chocola, help me dig out some more of the roots! Pancake, was it? I need you to run pack there and tackle the tree as hard as you can. Once it starts moving we'll all attack the tree at the same time!"

Chocola followed Vanilla's lead as the swinub reared up for her attack.

"Um, guys?" The shinx called out from below, more of his mostly-dry haven vanishing before his eyes.

"Just a little bit more!" Vanilla called out. Each tackle from swinub making the tree wobble ever so slightly.

A few more hits and the oak was swinging back and forth at a regular interval. A few deep snaps from below ground indicated that a few unexposed roots were feeling the strain.

"Now!" Vanilla signaled, running back towards the swinub's launching point.

Together with Chocola and Pancake, Vanilla lead the final charge, using the full momentum of their bodies to barrel into the wood.

More loud snaps and a shifting of the earth finally toppled the mighty tree. Nearly crashing into the stranded pokemon they were trying to rescue.

"Hey!" Ramen called out.

"Just shut up and climb on!" Chocola yelled back.

Not wanting to argue, the shinx jumped onto the nearest branch just as the last bit of his island sank into the water. The river was now pulling at the fallen tree, threatening to pull it into the stream as well. Ramen was forced to increase his pace.

Once on dry ground, the shinx was practically tackled by his worried friend. "Ramen! You're all right!"

Turning to his rescuers, he started to thank them for his rescue."I guess I am! I suppose I should apologize for doubting… you… two…?" he paused in confusion before he could finish.

Vanilla's disguise had just run out.


	24. City Guard

"…And that's why we think a disguise is necessary." Vanilla finished describing his situation to the two newcomers.

"Wow, that's pretty rough." Pancake thought aloud.

"No kidding." Ramen agreed. "So you haven't been back to the capital since the coup? That means you don't know…"

"Know what?"

"It's hard to explain really. Everyone's tried to get on with their lives. The absol haven't changed too much in town, other than upping security. Other than that, though, something just feels off, you know?" Ramen attempted to explain.

"What about my family? Where are the council members being kept?"

"Nobody knows." Pancake admitted. "I mean, everyone suspects they're just being held in a secret dungeon or something, but no-one outside of the Absol Brother's support teams would know very much, sorry."

Vanilla sighed in frustration. "Don't be. It's not your guys' fault."

"Is there anything we can do to help?" the shinx asked. "It would be the least we could do for saving my butt!"

"All I ask is that you don't let anyone know that it was an eevee that helped save you. My only advantage at the moment is that absol and company don't know that I'm here."

"Your secret's safe with us!" Pancake promised.

"Watch your back out there, then." Ramen suggested. "If the rest of the Council was like you, we might not be in this mess!"

"Thanks, I guess…" Vanilla said as he turned to his friend. "How are doing, Chocola? Ready to head out yet?"

"A few more minutes, I think, then I'll be charged enough to get us into the city, at least."

"We'll be headed out then. We have to tell someone that the bridge to Loamwood Town isn't safe anymore." Ramen said as he turned to leave.

Pancake followed closely behind. "Thanks again! Good luck!" She shouted before leaving.

'I hope we won't need it…' Vanilla thought to himself as he reflected upon recent events. Briefly, he wondered what damage the earthquake had done to the rest of exile.

"You doing all right?" Chocola asked him after seeing his furrowed brow.

"I'm just worried that, well, I may have to call this whole rescue thing off."

"What!? Why?"

"It just wouldn't feel right trying to sneak into the capital if everything's damaged from the earthquake. Can I really put my own problems over pokemon who need help now?"

Chocola thought to herself for a moment before answering. "Listen Vanilla, I know you're a softy and will probably try and help every pokemon we come across, but you can only do so much on your own. You heard Ramen, everyone is scared of what's going on. By freeing your family first, _they_ can start helping all of those you would never be able to reach, let alone help. Isn't that how this 'big picture' stuff is supposed to work?"

"Well, yeah, but I think I'd still feel a little bad about it…"

"Hehehe! Like I said, a big softy!" Chocola teased.

"Hey!"

The vixen got up with a long stretch. "Now that that's over. I say we get you into town!"

Vanilla nodded in agreement shortly before Chocola hit him with her disguise once more.

* * *

Approaching Convocity's outer edge, the foxes found that the city had received no visible damage, at least as far as they could tell from the outside. The city's gate was, however, guarded. A bastiodon was keeping a close eye on the passing pokemon, stopping anyone he saw as being out of line or suspicious.

"What's Dion doing out here?" Vanilla asked aloud.

"Dion?"

"The bastiodon guarding the gate. He was one of the pokemon in charge of the council's security back before, well, you know…"

Chocola realized that he was talking about the coup. "How would I know? I'm sure he has a reason, or whatever, but he does look to be doing a pretty good job, though."

"What if he recognizes me?"

"Hehe. Not through _my_ disguise." Chocola boasted before noticing that her claim did little to alleviate her friend's fears. "Look, if you're that worried about it, let me do the talking. If there's anything I've learned, it's how to cause enough of a distraction for you to sneak by, at least."

"Right. Of course…"

The other pokemon passerby gave them little notice as they approached the gate. It was almost as if the two foxes were invisible while they looked like zorua. The guard, however, was another matter entirely.

"Halt there, zorua. State your business." Dion ordered.

"Halt? Halt!? We've got important business to do in town, and that's that." Chocola stated confidently.

"Hah, coming from a little zorua like you, I find that hard to believe…" the bastidion countered.

"Hey! I'm trying to be truthful here!"

"Prove it." Dion said flatly.

"Er, well… Look, if we wanted to sneak by, wouldn't we try and look like some other pokemon? We could, but we didn't, cause we're trying to be good!"

"Oh, uhhh, maybe you have a point there, miss." Dion said relaxing his stance, if only a little. "Sorry to trouble you in that case. Welcome to Convocity!"

"Hehehe. That's better! Thank you!" Chocola exclaimed as she skipped through the entrance.

Vanilla attempted to follow her lead, albeit without the skipping.

"Wait up, zorua!" The guard ordered of Vanilla, causing him to freeze in his tracks.

Dion leaned closer to Vanilla, his stare seeming to cut right through the disguise. The eevee was doing his best not to break into a panic at the guard's proximity.

"You look like you've got a good head on your shoulders, boy. Keep an eye out for your sister before she gets herself in trouble, will ya?" Dion finished with a hearty laugh.

"Oh, I'll try?" was all Vanilla managed before darting into the city proper. Only once both he and Chocola were out of site of the gate, did he let out the breath he had been holding in. "That. Was a close one…"

"Please, Vanilla." Chocola said, rolling her eyes in rye amusement. "It was a piece of pie, or whatever it is that Reiga calls things that are easy."

"Right." Vanilla said simply.

"Well, then. Now what do we do?"

Vanilla thought about it for a moment before continuing. "We've got time before sunset. We might as well make our way to the Council Grounds and see what we can learn."

"Alright then!" Chocola said in honest excitement. "Lead the way!"


	25. Espionage 101

Chocola yawned. Somehow, sitting in one spot was even more boring than walking around the complex a few times. "Ugh… Why can't we just use the secret passage that you used to escape again?"

"I told you, I don't remember where it is. It was dark and I was half asleep when I stumbled out of it."

"Fine, but can we hurry this up? I don't know how much longer I can hold this mirage." She said while gesturing lazily in Vanilla's general direction.

Thankfully, they'd only had to stop and recharge once since entering the city. But after failing to locate his secret tunnel, they'd been forced to camp out near the main entrance and hope they could get a better grasp of the situation.

The only problem with that, was that their supplies were limited. With no answers, they'd have to leave town and set up camp before it got too dark to see.

"Alright, Chocola, let's head-" Vanilla started, only to interrupt himself as he saw something, or rather someone, that might prove useful.

"What are you looking at?" Chocola asked in confusion.

Vanilla gestured towards a group of pokemon that had just left the council grounds. "See that kangaskahn over there? That's Ganna, the head maid, or at least she was, the last time I was here. Either way, if there's anyone who knows anything about what's going on inside, it would be her."

"Are you sure we can trust her? I mean, why would she help you if she's working for these absol now?"

"She's probably still here because no other pokemon can do the job she does, just like that bastiodon guard at the gate. I think that, whatever the absol did, it looks like it left them a little short-pawed."

"If you say so, Vanilla, I'll trust her too. At least a little bit, anyway."

"Thanks, Chocola. We'll need to follow her then, I don't exactly know where she lives…"

The vixen shrugged. "Why am I not surprised?"

* * *

"This is our last chance to back down, Vanilla. If you want to, that is…" Chocola whispered from her shadowy hiding spot next to the path.

"I don't have a choice." The disguised eevee whispered back before walking towards Ganna's home.

After knocking on the door, Vanilla backed up a bit and waited for an answer.

"Who could possibly be visiting at this hour?" Came the muffled response through the door, just before Ganna opened it. The kangaskahn stood in the gap as the interior light shone over her shoulder. "What do you want, Little One?"

"Missus Ganna! It's me, Vanilla!"

The kangaskahn's eyes narrowed with suspicion. "Those are dangerous words, zorua. This better not be some sort of game."

Vanilla mentally slapped himself for not taking the disguise into account. "No, wait! It's really me! My mom's name is Caer, but everyone calls her Cream! Does that help?"

"Afraid not Little One. Just about everyone knows that."

"Oh, umm, umm. Wait! When Pickle was born, my mom had a blanket made for him. It was green with darker green stripes for its pattern! Please, you have to believe me! If you'll let me and my friend come inside, we can explain everything!"

"Vanilla! My hiding doesn't mean anything if you shout out that I'm here!" Chocola said as she exited her hiding spot. It looks like Vanilla was trying the honest approach. Again.

"Hmm. Alright. But no funny business." Ganna said while stepping to the side to let the two foxes through. "Come on, now. It's best not to linger outside after dark these days."

Once inside the warm home, the two guests shook the evening chill off of their coats. Once the door was closed, and with it, confirmation that the coast was clear, Vanilla gave the go-ahead for his friend to remove her mirage.

"Oh, my-!" Was all Ganna could say at the sight of the transformation in front of her. "It really _is_ you?" She finished after she finally recognized the eevee beneath. "But how?"

"Well, I had the help of some friends!" Vanilla said as he shared a glance with Chocola.

"I can see that! Come here and let me get a good look at you, Little Prince." The kangaskahn ordered.

"Hehe. Little Prince." Chocola snickered to herself. She was going to have to have some fun with that one at some point.

Lifting the eevee with her forearms, Ganna let out a low whistle. "I've got to say, Vanilla, your time away has done wonders for you. Is that muscle? Hardly anyone would recognize the shy Little Prince now, disguise or no, I suspect." She said as she gently lowered him to the ground. "And with friends in tow, no less."

Vanilla enjoyed the praise, it seemed, but his ears lowered when he remembered his true purpose for the visit. "I'd like to catch up more, Missus Ganna, but I-I need to-"

"Ah, don't you worry none. I suspected I can guess why you're here, but before we get into that, I think you two'd best follow me. I've got dinner prepared and I'll not have it go to waste. We can talk all you want about the situation afterwards. Will that work?"

"Yes, Ma'am." Came the stereo reply. Neither Chocola nor Vanilla had had much to eat since they entered the city.


	26. Since You've Been Gone

Ganna wouldn't allow any sort of political talk at the table, so instead, Vanilla regaled her and her son with tales of his adventures since he had fled. Pickle seemed to enjoy them, at least when in between bouts of playing with his food, but the look of worry, mixed with something else Vanilla couldn't quite identify, never left the older kangaskahn's face.

Once the meal was over, and the dishes properly cleaned, a task that Ganna was surprised to see that Vanilla had acquired, Pickle was sent off to bed, and the conversation could finally turn to more serious matters.

"Before we get started, I need to know what you two know about the coup." Ganna asked.

"To be honest we don't know much. We only know that the Absol Brothers are behind it for some reason."

"Hmm, then I suppose I should start at the beginning. It all started a few months ago, according to the rumors, when Perihelion had a vision of a terrible disaster. He, together with his brother Absolution, approached the Council in an attempt to mitigate whatever disaster that Peri had predicted."

"And the Council refused? Why?" Vanilla questioned.

"I don't know. Nobody does. After the coup, your family, along with the rest of the council members and their families were taken to a part of the council grounds that we're no longer allowed in."

"Then, my family…?"

"I'm fairly certain they're alive, as we're still being ordered to bring regular meals to the guards so that they can deliver them. But as to their condition, I cannot say." Ganna continued. "All I know is that of the eevee who managed to escaped that night, you are the last one who remains free."

"That's kind of my reason for returning, I think. It isn't right that any pokemon should be locked up like that."

"That may be, but I don't think you should risk yourself to do so Vanilla. As long as you are free, you can't be used as a bargaining chip for whatever scheme this whole mess has been set up for."

'What did she mean by bargaining chip?' Vanilla thought for a moment. If it required the use of the evolution council members, then that was all the more reason to see to their freedom. "I'm sorry, Ganna, but I've already made up my mind on this. I have to at least try."

Ganna looked long and hard at the eevee. To her, he was an entirely different pokemon than the one she'd help take care of only a few weeks ago. Now he was motivated like she'd never thought possible. His mother would be proud. "Then you'll want to talk to Perihelion. If there's anyone capable of stopping this madness, it's him."

"What" Chocola interjected. "Why would we try and talk one of the two jerks who started this thing? It sounds to me like they've already made up their minds!"

"Absolution is the mastermind behind this coup, little one. His brother has become a pawn, same as you would be in the event of your capture. That poor soul probably wouldn't have even approached the council with his premonition had it not been for his brother's influence."

Even so, Vanilla wasn't sure he could be trusted not to hand them over the first chance he got. "Then why would he help us?"

"Because he's just as much a prisoner as your parents are. You just have to find a way to convince him of that, and he might very well assist you."

"That sounds like a long shot, honestly." Vanilla surmised.

"No offense, Little Prince. But, in your current state, you are no match compared to those who've been fighting their whole lives. You need allies, that much is certain."

Vanilla shrugged. "I can't argue with you there. I suppose it would be good to have one less enemy to fight."

"If that's settled, then great, but aren't we getting ahead of ourselves?" Chocola interrupted once more. "We still don't know how we can get inside, let alone how to find this Perihelion before we're surrounded by guards."

Ganna thought about it for a while, before she finalized a plan. "I have an idea about for that, but it can wait until later. The real problem is what you're going to do once inside. I can't help, and guards patrol the halls now, and as clever as your disguise is, it won't hide you if you aren't supposed to be there in the first place."

Nothing further came to Vanilla or Chocola on that front. The vixen had some ideas, but none of them were meant for use on other pokemon. The only reason the disguise, as it was, worked on Vanilla was because she was familiar with her own form. She didn't know how long it would take before she could mirage another form over her friend.

"Suppose we'll just have to do our best to avoid being seen." Vanilla concluded.

"Then I suggest you come up with an escape route, wherever you go. If you have the choice between fighting or fleeing, you'd better not choose to battle." Ganna said sternly.

"Frankly, Missus Ganna, I hope we never have to make that choice…" Vanilla agreed.


	27. Spymaster

With a new day, Ganna found herself pulling a cart full of laundry through to the council grounds gate.

"Good Morning Ganna. What's this?" called out a machop guard.

"You call it good morning, I call it laundry day." Ganna said with the tired sigh of someone who hates describing her work to pokemon who don't really care. "We've got to swap out the linens every so often if you don't want the place to get gross."

"Eh, you know the drill, Ganna, we still gotta inspect it."

"Be my guest…" Ganna said as she took a step back from the cart.

The machop and his partner, a croagunk, shifted through the cart. Finding nothing, they waved the kangaskahn through.

Before she could pass though, the machop noticed something. "Hey, where's the little one?"

Ganna lowered herself until she was face to face with the guard. "Pickle's resting, and I'd like to keep it that way if it's not too much trouble." She said standing back up. "Unless you want the honor of telling your boss why he has to deal with a wailing child in the complex…?" She taunted.

The guard blanched, thankfully keeping his mouth shut and silently giving Ganna a pass.

As she left earshot of the two guards, the croagunk turned to his partner. "I thought her kid was too old for that babying stuff?"

"Heck if I know, kangaskahn are always weird when it comes to their kids…"

With that, the guards ignored the head maid and their vigilant watch continued.

Ganna had made her way into the central council building and into one of the more secluded worker-only sections of the complex before giving her signal.

Chocola exited the kangaskahn's pouch first. "When you said we wouldn't like it, you weren't kidding…" She said, shaking off how weird the experience felt.

"I don't know," Vanilla admitted as he reached the floor. "It was odd but warm."

Chocola just gave him a 'what is wrong with you' glance before looking back up to Ganna. "Alright, we're in, now what?"

"You'll likely find Perihelion in one of the council-members' offices. Either the dark, grass, or normal offices. That area will be heavily guarded, so watch yourselves."

"Thanks, Missus Ganna. Anything else?" Vanilla inquired.

"Just a reminder to stay away from the Forum Chamber. That's where Absolution's going to be. Other than that, all I can say is good luck. This is as far as my support can go."

"Tell the little one thanks for us too!" Chocola added, referring to the younger kangaskahn that had been forced to stay home. "You ready Vanilla?" She said as she peered into the hallway.

"I don't have a choice…" He replied simply, bowing his thanks to their helper once more before heading out the door to follow Chocola.

Once in the quiet hallway, Vanilla found the zorua on alert. "Where are we headed?" she asked while scanning their surroundings.

Vanilla had to think about it for a few moments. "Hmm, we'll need to go up two floors, then circle around until we get to the Normal Office. That one's closest."

Once she'd ensured that the coast was clear, she turned to her friend, "Alright Vanilla, I _do_ have a mirage I can use to hide us, but from here on out, you have to get as close as you can to me, okay? Like, _really_ close. When I move, you move, and when I stop, you stop. Got it?"

"Okay, but if you had a skill like that, why did we use the disguise?"

"Because it requires us to be absolutely still, or the illusion could break. Also, I can only extend it so far away, so watch you tail." Chocola stated matter-of-factually. "Besides, the disguise was fun!" She finished before giving a 'follow me' signal.

They hugged the walls as closely as they could as they traversed the hallways, stopping and waiting for any signs of a pokemon as they crossed paths along the way. The route to the stairs was relatively vacant compared to how Vanilla remembered it. To him, the barren halls felt unnerving, for some reason.

Thankfully, Chocola was in her stealthy element, stopping the eevee before he ran into a patrol at the top of the stairs. Security was relatively light inside the dome, but that didn't mean that they were free to move about, it would seem.

Under Vanilla's silent direction, Chocola took a circuitous route to the Normal Office. Without further encounters, they reached the room, only to find it empty, though not to Vanilla's surprise. He fully expected to reach Perihelion in the Dark Office, truthfully, as it would probably suit the absol's needs better.

Why the absol would be spending his time anywhere but the Dark office was beyond the eevee, but regardless, Vanilla's father's office was the nearest to their current location and, as such, would be their next target.

Sticking to the long route, Chocola was forced to halt their progress and throw up her mirage after coming across a second patrol team. Neither of the two guards had made a sound upon their approach, and nearly stumbled directly into the trespassing foxes. It was only when one of the guards sneezed, giving away their position, that Chocola realized how close they had been to catastrophe.

Even a few moments after the danger had passed, and the guards had made their way out of earshot, Vanilla found his pulse still erratic. It was only after Chocola dropped her mirage and stepped away from their hiding spot, before Vanilla managed to calm himself.

Chocola turned and looked at her friend when his step faltered for a moment. The eevee in question signaled that he was okay, though maybe a little embarrassed, before she returned to the stalking.

The Dark Office was also vacant, but unlike the one for normal types, it had been thoroughly trashed. There was all manner of parchment strewn about everywhere one looked, and most of the furniture was in complete disarray.

"What happened here?" Chocola whispered.

If Vanilla was being honest, and he usually was, it could mean any number of things. His father could have been in here during the coup, for instance. But surely, Ganna and the rest of the assistants wouldn't tolerate such a mess for so long.

The other thought that came to mind was that maybe someone was looking for clues as to where he, himself, might have been hiding these last few days. In the end, all Vanilla could do was shrug a gesture of 'I don't know' before the two of them made for the final target.

Vanilla sincerely hoped they wouldn't have to case every one of the offices in their search. There were sixteen more of them to search from, and stopping at each additional room increased their chances of getting caught. Barring that, taking too long at each stop would also increase the chances that they would miss the absol altogether.

Acknowledging their dwindling chances for success, Vanilla gave the signal for them to press on.


	28. Perihelion

Barring interruption from further patrols, the duo had one more obstacle ahead of them. The good news was that the lone guard being stationed outside the Grass office meant that there was probably someone important _inside_ the office. The bad news was that there was a stationary guard that they couldn't simply hide from. If they wanted in that room they would have to go through the tyrogue standing watch.

Still behind the veil of her mirage, Chocola turned to Vanilla with an ever-widening grin. The eevee was pretty sure he wasn't going to like whatever the vixen had planned, but he gave her the go ahead anyway. What choice did he have?

Slinking along as close to the wall as possible, the two of them approached the door as near as Chocola dared. Turning towards the opposite wall she inhaled. Throwing her voice, the zorua made it sound as if the empty space down the hall was trying to get the guard's attention. "Hey! You!" her disembodied voice called out.

Had Vanilla not seen it, he'd believe the voice came from a particularly eerie ghost pokemon. As unnerving as it was to Vanilla, the effect seemed to have double the effectiveness on the guard.

"H-hello?" The tyrogue called out. "Is anyone there?"

Chocola turned and through her voice down the hallway opposite of the office door. "No! Over here!"

The poor fighting-type was visibly shaking now. "C-come on guys! This isn't funny!" He said, hoping that this was just some sort of joke being played on him by the other guards. "I knew I shouldn't have told them how creepy this place feels when it's empty…"

Before Chocola could deliver her scary coup de grâce, she was interrupted by the sound of a squeaky wheel coming from the branched hallway.

"Who g-goes there!" The tyrogue challenged, regaining at least a little composure upon sighting a physical entity.

"Ugh, it's just me, Dumpling." The very bored-looking audino stated as she pushed along a cart topped with a tea kettle and an empty cup. "Same as always…"

"Oh! Of course, Teiya. Perihelion's tea time already?"

Chocola recognized an opportunity when she spotted one. While the two were conversing, she motioned for Vanilla to follow, and within moments they had successfully hidden themselves away inside the lower section of the cart.

As the audino wheeled them into the room, Chocola overheard the guard ask Teiya if she'd seen any other pokemon around. The urge to giggle almost proved to be too much, but the serious look on Vanilla's face stopped her.

"Good morning, Teiya." Perihelion greeted her while barely looking up from the scroll he was reading.

The audino simply poured a cup of tea from the kettle.

"Ahh, Roserade Select," the absol said as he inhaled the warm scent emanating from his cup "what would I do without you?"

"Will that be all, Perihelion, sir?"

"Yes. Thank you. I'll call for you If I need anything."

"As you wish, sir." Teiya said as she exited the room.

One more inhale of the tea's aromatic blend and Perihelion was almost ready to get back to work. As he began sipping his tea, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye, nearly startling him enough to choke on his tea.

"Finally! You are Perihelion, right?" Said the little zorua that popped out from underneath the tea cart.

"Woah! Mister Perihelion, are you all right?" Called the little eevee who tumbled into sight after the vixen once he'd noticed the absol's fit.

The absol in question waited until he'd cleared his throat and inhaled a lung full of air before responding. "What are an eevee and a zorua doing here of all places?"

"It's me, Vanilla, Mister Perihelion!"

Looking at the tan intruder closer, the absol could just make out the family resemblance. He'd been introduced to the eevee only a few times before, but there was no doubt that this pup belonged to Caer and Fayd, the former holder Dark Seat on the Eevolution Council. The same eevee his brother was so desperate to find.

"You really shouldn't have come here, little Vanilla. But if you've made it this far, then I can probably guess as to why."

"I want you to help us free my family and the families of the other council members."

Perihelion stared at his cup for a few moments. "I'm sorry, Vanilla, I cannot help you."

"But-!"

"What you ask would have me oppose my bother. To go against his followers!" the absol interrupted. "And then there's the prophecy to deal with…" Perihelion finished as his eyes focused on some far-off image.

Vanilla approached the short desk the absol had been sitting behind. "You mean, your vision didn't have anything to do with that earthquake yesterday?"

The absol let out a short, sad laugh. "If only, little one. No, I'm afraid that even I don't fully understand what I saw, only that it was far, far worse than any mere tremor…" Snapping himself out of his vision, he continued. "And your council rejected our pleas! They would leave us defenseless!"

"Calm down." The zorua said simply, hoping that the door was soundproof.

"Please, Mister Perihelion, you and I both know that keeping everyone locked up is not the solution."

"But, we-"

"I promise, I'll do everything I can to get the council members to heed your warnings, Mister Perihelion. Keeping them locked away will only hurt your cause."

"I- Sacrifices must be made for the greater good…" Absol said weakly.

Vanilla walked around the table and sat down next to the absol. "Is that _your_ position? Or does it belong to your brother?"

Tears were forming in Perihelion's eyes. "I just want to do what's right!"

"As do I." Vanilla said simply, placing his paw on the larger absol's foreleg.

Perihelion calmed a bit. In truth, he wanted to believe in the eevee sitting next to him. But things had already progressed so far. "You would still have me betray my brother?"

"No. I'd prefer it if he stood down and let the council do its job, no fighting involved." Vanilla said with a genuine smile. "I'm not very good at confrontations anyway!"

"Heh, I suppose not. Even so, Absolution's word is final. I cannot help you against him, or his closest followers. He does not listen to me in matters that do not concern future events."

"I see…" Vanilla said as his ears drooped. "What about the council-members. Can you at least help me get them to safety?"

"No." Perihelion said, seeming to depress the fox further. "B-but I can tell you where to find the key to their freedom, at least." He admitted finally.

"Please, Mister Perihelion, that is all I ask."

The absol sighed. "Leshari. She's a luxray that follows my brother's every command. Around her neck, you'll find the key to the prison, located underneath the storehouse on the northern corner of the complex."

Vanilla withdrew from the absol. "Thank you, Perihelion! I promise I'll talk to them about your vision. Heck, with the earthquake happening so recently, they'll probably take you seriously."

"I hope so, young Vanilla. For all our sakes…"

Turning to leave, Chocola leaned closer to her friend. "You sure about this? How can you convince the council to turn to the absol's side after what he did?"

Vanilla didn't even have to think about it. "Honestly? I'll probably have to threaten their biggest bargaining chip…" he mumbled, leaving no room to question his response.

Before Vanilla reached the door, Chocola stopped him. "Wait a moment, Vanilla, I've got something for the guard!" she finished with an evil-looking grin.

Opening the door as slowly and quietly as she could, Chocola found the agitated guard through the crack. Readying herself to throw her voice, she aimed as close to his head as possible. A loud "Boo! Was all it took to send the little tyrogue running in terror.

"Wasn't that a little much?" Vanilla asked, questioning her antics.

"Probably, but it was worth it! Now come on, while he's distracted!" she finished before leaping out into the hallway.

After Vanilla followed, Perihelion was left to himself. Something like this had always been bound to happen, no matter how much he wished it otherwise. In all honesty, he sort of envied the courageous little eevee. An eevee, whom he could have sworn was as timid as the rest of them only a few weeks ago. Whatever he'd found in that short time had changed him.

The only thing the absol had ever discovered of himself, had been the 'gift' of foresight. But even that was almost too much for him to bear alone.

Almost…


	29. Stone Room

Leaving Perihelion behind wasn't something Vanilla wanted to do, but if they couldn't convince the absol to turn against his brother, then there was nothing else they could do about it.

"Any idea where this luxray is?" Chocola whispered once she was certain no-one was within earshot.

Vanilla shook his head to say 'no', but stopped himself. If this Leshari was one of Absolution's top supporters, then it would make sense that she'd be close to the center of his operation, close to him. Not wanting to risk talking, Vanilla simply pointed forward, then up. If they wanted to get close to the luxray, they'd have to go to visit the Forum Chamber.

But to do that, they'd have to go through the room that housed the Legendary Evolution Stone.

Navigating the office level was a breeze for Chocola now that she knew the guards' patrol patterns. She'd briefly worried that they'd accidentally run into a guard on the stairwell, a place her mirage would be less likely to work, but fortunately, her fears seemed unfounded.

Upon reaching the next floor, however, the duo discovered that there didn't seem to be any guards at all, not even a few stationed in front of the Legendary Stone's viewing room.

Entering the Stone Room and verifying it was clear, Chocola took the opportunity to gaze upon the ultimate shiny. "It's beautiful…" She said, nodding her approval while gazing into the dull-gray translucence of the rock.

"That's nothing." Vanilla said as he reared up and placed his paw on the stone.

Before Chocola could protest, after all, Vanilla had just rejected obtaining his own evolution stone, she was cut off when the rock in front of her began to glow. What was once dull, now shone with a nearly brilliant white, at least until the eevee removed his paw.

"Neat, huh?" Vanilla finished with knowing grin.

"But, but, you didn't evolve?"

"Nope. The stone helps others to evolve, and only when an eevee, or one of its evolutions touches it. If another pokemon touches it at the same time, and their type is compatible with the evolution, then they can evolve too. Granted, there's usually a little more ceremony involved, but since it's just you, I thought you'd like to see it!"

"Thanks, Vanilla! Can you do it again?"

"Maybe later. We still need that key." Vanilla said in all seriousness. He didn't want to linger any longer than necessary.

As Chocola made a visible display of her dejection at not seeing the shiny in action again, Vanilla thought back to Perihelion's words. Things started clicking into place, at least concerning why Absolution was looking for the escaped eevees. Without the Legendary Evolution Stone, it would be difficult to maintain the ofttimes precarious balance between the various pokemon types. And if the Father, the umbreon, refused to work with the absol, it would put all dark-types at a disadvantage, further weakening Absolutions position.

If Absolution got his paws on Vanilla, his father would have no choice but to go along with his plans. As long as he remained free, the absol would find it difficult to get any support. Not just from the other Dark-types, but from any pokemon who realized that balance must be maintained.

Suddenly, Vanilla realized that it wasn't a very good idea to be wandering around. After all, this place was now, essentially, Absolution's new stronghold.

Too bad the freedom of others outweighed the risk. He needed that key. "Come on, Chocola. It's only a little further to the Forum. We just need to sneak up to this Leshari and find a way to steal her key without her noticing."

"Leave that to me." Chocola said with a wink. "I've still got a few tricks to play!"

Getting in position at the hallway entrance, the pair crouched closely together, much like they did on the earlier floors. After all, their sneaking had worked so far, why change a good thing?

Passing a few doors, the stairs appeared just ahead when Chocola felt Vanilla lag behind. To her horror, she found the eevee sound asleep behind her.

So enthralled with her recent memory of the stone, and her stealth work she'd missed something vitally important.

Hypnosis. The hallway leading up to the Forum was practically saturated with it.

Chocola tried prodding Vanilla awake, but her actions were in vain. Even if she could wake him, he was likely to fall asleep again long before they could escape.

What was worse was the angry sound of a static discharge emanating from the pokemon coming down the stairs.


	30. Confrontation

Vanilla found himself wandering the halls of the Central council building, only, everything felt as though he were walking through a thick fog. Details escaped him, both for the other pokemon he was forced to walk around and even the structure itself. For some reason, however, he couldn't bring himself to focus on anything.

No matter how far he seemed to walk, the hallways never seemed to end. To Vanilla, that didn't really make any sense. Sure it had winding hallways and pokemon have been known to get lost within its halls from time to time, but the Central Council Building was practically his home.

It was then that he realized that, even if he _did_ try to focus, nothing ever became clearer. Even the pokemon were a dull image of themselves. Trying to touch one of them caused it to fade from existence, startling him a bit.

Upon the realization that none of the images present were actually pokemon, Vanilla's memory started up again. He wasn't supposed to be alone here was he? "Chocola?" He recalled. "Chocola, where are you?!"

Vanilla took off down the hall, no longer trying to dodge every pokemon-shaped shade along the way, electing instead to simply pass through them.

"Wait, what am I doing?" Vanilla said to no-one in particular. "The hallway's endless, what's running going to do?" Stopping in front of one of the office doors, he swung it open. Only, much to his surprise, he found that there was nothing on the other side.

The wall was blank, devoid of everything but some vague representation of a surface. Vanilla stumbled back in utter confusion.

"What?! T-that doesn't make any sense!" Vanilla shouted into the distance. Forcing himself to think about things made him realize that nothing here was making sense. The last thing he remembered clearly, they'd been on their way to the Forum Chamber.

That either meant that Chocola had started some sort of cruel joke, which didn't really seem likely given the circumstances, or that there was another likely, yet more frightening game at play. Something had put him to sleep.

Vanilla nipped his paw experimentally. He'd heard somewhere that pain was the key to waking up from a dream, but it didn't seem to do anything.

"Ah ah ah. That won't work here, Little Eevee." Said a voice in the distance.

"Although we must admit that you've figured it out faster than most." Admitted another voice on the opposite side.

"So this is Hypnosis, then." Vanilla said, attempting to keep both directions under observation.

"We'd hoped to get the intruder, but nabbing _you_ is even better." Said the dark shape to the right.

"Leshari will have to keep her promise now…" Said the white shape on the left.

"L-Leshari? The luxray? We're actually looking for her…" Vanilla admitted, though he was not quite sure why. Wasn't he supposed to steal something from her?

The dark one resolved into a black meowstic. "Oh, look Shirii, I bet this one thinks he can negotiate…"

'Negotiate? For what?' Vanilla thought to himself.

"It wouldn't be the first time, Kiroi…" Answered the newly revealed white meowstic. "Too bad for him. No-one's ever escaped our Dual-Hypnosis."

"And no-one ever will, dear Sister."

"Hey now, don't count me out!" Vanilla shouted. "I-I can't stay here forever, right? You have to let me wake up eventually, don't you?"

"You misunderstand, Eevee. We don't have to. You'll only sleep until we find the one hiding you." Shirii, the white meowstic, promised.

'The one hiding me…-? Tha means that they haven't discovered us yet. There's still time!' Vanilla concluded as he tried to think of a way out of this mess. He'd have to think of a plan quick. If they knew that he was being hidden by another pokemon, it was only a matter of time before they found Chocola.

Meanwhile, outside of the dreamworld, Chocola tucked herself as close to Vanilla as possible before throwing up a quick mirage to cover them both.

"I know you're here…" the luxray cooed after reaching the bottom of the stairs. "Now be a good pokemon and turn yourself, or selves, in."

Chocola remained silent. Zorua don't give away their positions unless they have to, and she still had Vanilla to worry about.

"Don't believe me, hmm? I know you're there because my meowstic put someone to sleep in this very hallway. The fact that you are not visible means that you are awake, which, frankly limits what you actually are. I suspect a zoroark, but I doubt _He'd_ be interested in anything here…" The luxray observed while walking down the corridor. "Though I suppose that's not important, is it? At least, not compared to the fact that you're not alone…" She taunted.

As the luxray, whom Chocola guessed was most likely the very pokemon they were supposed to be searching for, Leshari, drew closer, the zorua dug into her bag of tricks and put up another mirage, this one much larger and more complex than the one she used as cover.

The luxray's pace quickened. Chocola could feel her fur bristle with electricity as the electric pokemon stepped past her.

Reaching the portion of the hallway that branched back into the viewing chamber, Leshari realized that something was off. She'd walked that hallway dozens of times of times over the last few days, but she'd never done so that quickly. Not at her normal pace. There was something wrong with her perception of the hallway's length.

She'd fallen for some sort of trick. "I wonder, how long do you think your illusion can last under a full assault!?" Leshari shouted angrily as she charged up for an electric attack.

Chocola hugged Vanilla closer, silently wishing enough for the both of them that the eevee would wake up.

"Um… No." Vanilla said flatly.

"Oh? I doubt a little eevee knows more about our technique than we do?" Kiroi said antagonizing.

'Dang, they called me out…' Vanilla mentally berated himself before trying to find something he could use from their shockingly short conversation. "Do you wanna bet on that?" he gambled.

Kiroi looked at his sister questioningly. Shirii just shrugged. "Why not? We've got nothing to lose."

"Alright, fine, Eevee, what are your terms?" Kiroi asked.

'Dang again!' Vanilla, realizing that he really should think these things through a bit more. 'Wait a minute! Thinking it through, thinking it through…'

"Well, we're waiting…"

"Um, I challenge, um, you both, to a game of checkers?" Vanilla declared, tumbling over his own words a bit.

"What? Really? You can't be serious…" Shirii said shaking her head. "You can't possibly win against the both of us."

"Fine then," Vanilla admitted, "How about two games, side by side? If I win, or tie, at least one of them, you have to let me go!"

"And if _we_ win?"

"T-then I stop struggling and let you capture me."

"Deal." Kiroi said before his sister could object. "Anything else?"

"Oh, um yes! There is, actually…"


	31. Breach

"So I can just think of something, and it'll pop up?" Vanilla asked as the meowstic summoned two tables equipped with checkerboards. Red and black disks materialized out of thin air and softly dropped onto their respective squares only a moment later.

"Of course you can, dummy." Shirii replied with a roll of her eyes. "This _is_ the dreamworld."

"But don't think that you can defeat the both of us with anything you can drum up, Eevee. There's nothing you can throw at us here that we haven't seen before…" Her brother replied before Vanilla could do anything with the new information.

"Oh, I wasn't thinking about anything like that, only this…" Vanilla acknowledged as a solid divider appeared between the two tables. "That way, there's no cheating."

"You do realize we're psychic types right? We don't need to see each other to communicate."

"Oh, well, if you think you _need_ to cheat to beat me, then I guess there's no helping it." Vanilla said with the sweetest smile he could manage. "I'm sure it would impress all of your friends that you had to gang up on a little eevee in order to beat him at something as simple checkers…" He finished, going in for the kill.

"Why you… Fine. No telepathy! Let's just get this over with already." Kiroi growled.

"Okay," Vanilla said while sitting down at Kiroi's table, "you go first!"

* * *

Chocola was glad she'd put up the perception filter when she had the chance. It was probably the only reason that she hadn't been hit with one of the luxray's randomly-thrown thunderbolts. The problem was, Leshari only had so many more places she could attack before she hit the zorua.

Leshari was laughing maniacally now, taking great pleasure in whatever mind game she thought she was playing. "Oh? I think I'm getting close!" She said as she fired off another bolt of electricity.

The bolt mostly struck home, sending a surge of energy through Chocola's tail, and through it, the rest of her body. She bit her tongue to keep herself from making a sound that would give away her position.

At least Vanilla was seemingly uninjured, though that may not remain the case for much longer. Chocola needed to think of something fast.

Another randomly thrown bolt struck the wall on the other side of the hallway, the flash causing Chocola to wince even at a distance.

It was then that the zorua realized she was still biting her tongue, even though she was in no danger of making a sound. A sudden thought entered her mind, and as Leshari charged up another shot, Chocola hoped her new plan would be enough…

* * *

"Are you gonna move, or what, pup?" Kiroi asked after having placed his own piece a few moments before.

"Shh, you're breaking my concentration…" Vanilla stated as he concentrated on the board.

"Whatever, you're the one whose on the clock, not us. How do you plan on beating both of us before Leshari finds you and your friend, huh?"

Vanilla looked up from the board and tilted his head to the side. "Oh! Right. I might as well get the other board started then. I'll be right back!" he finished as he hopped around the wall to Shirii's table.

"I guess I'm first on this one, huh?" Vanilla said as he approached the board.

"That's generally how it works, Eevee…" the meowstic said in disdain. She'd apparently summoned a comfortable-looking cushion in Vanilla's absence.

"Right, right… um, this one!" Vanilla said as he made his move.

"Finally." She stated as she made her own turn. "Your move."

"Oh, wait! I still have to make my move on your brother's board. I'll be right back!"

"Whatever…" She replied rolling her eyes. The longer he was willing to drag this out, the less she'd have to suffer through Leshari's praise for their boss.

The opening moves out of the way, the games were on.

* * *

Leshari smirked as heard the muffled 'yip' down the hallway. It looked as though one of her attacks _had_ managed to strike home, after all! She would have preferred to bombard the area with her strongest attack, but Absolution's orders were clear. If the eevee was here, and she had no reason to believe anyone else would be sneaking around, he was to remain mostly unharmed.

'But that didn't mean the same rules applied to his associate.' She thought to herself. Charging up another thunderbolt, she put a little more juice into it than was strictly necessary. "This game has gone on long enough!" She shouted as she aimed for the source of the earlier noise, and fired.

* * *

Both games were moving at a much faster pace now that Vanilla had a rhythm down.

"Aha, your move!" the eevee exclaimed with his ever-present grin.

After making his own move, Kiroi watched the eevee nod his head before moving to his sister's side of the partition. Looking at the board, it was fairly obvious that he was winning, so what, exactly, was the little fox smiling about?

"Hey sis?" Kiroi called out

"Hey, no cheating!" Vanilla called out.

"What part of 'psychic pokemon don't need to speak in order to talk' don't you understand?" Shirii berated the fox. "What do you want, Kiroi?" She said, sounding a little bemused. An oddity, for his siter, for sure.

"I just wanted to know how you're doing over there."

"It could be going better…" She admitted.

"What!? He's actually beating you?" The black meowstic asked incredulously as Vanilla returned to his side. Granted, she'd never beaten him in any of their games before, but that didn't mean she was a slouch.

"What of it? He's better than I thought, alright!" She shouted over the wall. "Besides, I think I know how to turn it around.

"You'd better…" Kiroi mumbled after he and Vanilla had exchanged their turns.

A few more turns in and Kiroi heard his sister ask a question. "Why not?" It must have been directed at the eevee, because it was quickly followed by an "Oh? Oh! Right…"

The meowstic let his curiosity get the better of him. "What's going on over there?"

Vanilla gave Shirii a conspiring grin and held his paw up to his muzzle in a silencing gesture.

Shirii didn't know exactly why the eevee was helping her, but she didn't really care. If he wanted to lose both games, that was his problem. "It's nothing Kiroi. Don't worry about it." She said, only slightly wondering why she was playing along at all.

Kiroi was eyeing Vanilla suspiciously when he returned to his end of the table. "I thought you said no cheating?"

"That's correct." Vanilla replied simply before moving his piece.

"Hmm." Kiroi said before touching one of his pieces. "I wanna raise the stakes."

"…Oh? What do you mean?" Vanilla asked. His plan was already complicated enough.

"Yeah. If you win both games, no ties, not only will we let you go if you win, but we won't help Leshari chase you down afterwards."

"And if I lose?"

"Then you have to give up that friend of yours that's giving her so much trouble." The meowstic added tauntingly.

"I don't know…"

"Come on… You do realize we could just use hypnosis on you once you wake back up, right? At least this way, you still have a shot at escaping."

But on the other paw, Vanilla would have to chance betraying Chocola to the enemy. The meowstic was right, though, they'd never agreed to not attack him the moment they let him go, and there was no way they'd fall into _this_ trap again.

"Okay…" Vanilla agreed while Kiroi made his move. "It's a deal."

Walking back over to Shirii's table, Vanilla copied the move that the male meowstic sibling had just made. So far they'd been playing against themselves, practically guaranteeing him a win, so why had he felt the need to help the sister? Now he was going to have to alter his plan, or give up his mission…

* * *

Chocola had never been more thankful for a working plan before. Granted, the crazy luxray had blown a hole in the opposite wall with the subsequent blasts, scattering debris in all direction, but at least those thunderbolts hadn't been aimed at her.

Once Leshari recovered from her attack, it would only be a matter of time before she realized she'd fallen for another trick, and Chocola was quickly running out of options.

The only thing she could do nowwashug Vanilla tighter, and hope he'd wake up on his own.

* * *

Kiroi wondered when, exactly, the tables had turned on him. At least now the eevee's happy-go-lucky smile was gone, replaced with a stern look of concentration.

He was losing now, but his sister seemed to be winning, if her excited voice was any indication. The pup seemed to be helping her still, but it mattered not, so long as at least one of the siblings won.

Vanilla returned and brought Kiroi's piece count to one, a king. The eevee still had two of the same and an additional, regular piece to work with, which would mean that this game was a forgone conclusion.

Kiroi would lose, but that didn't mean he'd go down without a fight. Now was the time for an all-out offensive.

Only a mere sixteen moves later, though, and his fight was done. Kiroi'd been corralled into a corner made by the one normal piece still on the board.

"That's game." Vanilla said while wiping imagined sweat from his brow.

"But what about Shirii's game?"

"Oh, I resigned ages ago…" The meowstic in question answered as she came around the divider.

"B-but why?" Kiroi said, a little taken aback. "I thought you were winning?!"

"Yeah, yeah. If you haven't figured it out yet, I'll explain later. For now, though, we promised to release the pup."

"Really?" Vanilla asked, excited to finally be free from the dream realm.

"Fine, a deal's a deal."

Vanilla rushed up to hug Shirii, "Thanks so much, Miss Shirii!" he said before releasing her and bowing to her brother. "And you too, Mister Kiroi. It's been fun!" He exclaimed before tilting his head in the realization that he didn't actually know how to wake up. "Um, how do I-?"

"Like this." Shirii interrupted him with a bop on the nose. Both Vanilla, and the realm around them vanished in an instant. "Cute kid." She finished.

"Sure, yeah, but what was that all about? What are we going to tell Leshari?"

"First, we're not going to tell that cat anything. Second, the kid had been playing us from the start."

"What?!" Kiroi said, stopping just shy of using hypnosis again. "Wait. If you _knew_ he was cheating, why did you help him?"

"Well, I'm not really sure, honestly. Sure the pup's polite and all. But I guess when I figured out his game plan, I just sort of went along with it."

"And how, might I ask, did he manage that?"

"He set it up so that we were playing against each other, dummy. All he had to do is act as the intermediary and shuffle our moves to each other's boards."

Kiroi looked at his sister with a questioning glance. Partly because he didn't think he'd actually fallen for such a simple trick, and partly because he still didn't understand why his sister acted the way she did. "Then, why?"

She thought about it for a moment before answering. "Maybe I just wanted to win for once. Or, maybe after getting to know Vanilla for a bit, leaving him to Leshari just felt, well, wrong?"

He had to admit he hated working with the Luxray too. Besides, maybe the eevee was a cute kid, like his sister had said earlier. "Maybe you're right…" He acknowledged. Heck, even though they were supposed to be enemies, the kid treated them better than their boss ever did. "So, uh, wanna bail on this party?"

"Do I ever."

* * *

Vanilla coughed and groaned upon waking up, the former from the dust, debris, and ozone in the air, and the latter from his groggy awakening.

Chocola hugged him, happy to have him among the living, and also because her game of 'hide the foxes' was now officially over.

Leshari was busy screaming some sort of expletive and no longer taking any chances with a distance attack. Charging forward, her bared fangs crackled with electricity as she made her way towards the duo's location.

With all of her might, Chocola pushed herself, and the still-loopy eevee, off of the wall, out of her mirage and into the middle of the hallway.

Before Leshari could finish changing her course, Chocola let out her surprise attack. Jumping up, and sending every terrible image she could imagine towards the luxray, she finished her astonishing attack.

It worked. The luxray stumbled in her attack, missing a step entirely. She'd flinched in surprise.

Gently smacking Vanilla fully awake, Chocola pointed to the newly remodeled wall. "Run!" was all she shouted before taking off herself.

Vanilla didn't have to be told twice. Soon, only Leshari was still left in the hallway.


	32. Breakout

"I'm so glad you're awake!" Chocola started as they fled the corridor. "What's the plan?"

"Um… Same as the old one?" Vanilla suggested as he finished attempting to clear his head. The current environment wasn't going to let him get a moment of respite, however. "We still need to get that key so that we can free everyone."

"Oh, is that all?" Chocola stated sarcastically as she approached the door. "Hey, I know, let's just wait here and see if the angry luxray will help. We'll just ask her for the key!"

Chocola put a paw up to her ear in a mock listening gesture. "Oh, wait. She's too busy screaming at some meowstic or something to hear us right now. Guess not."

"I didn't say it was a _good_ plan…" Vanilla admitted. Every seemed to be going from bad to worse with every passing second.

Dashing through the small rooms that emptied into the hallway, Chocola just wanted to put as much distance between Leshari and themselves as possible. "I suggest we cut our losses and- Woah!" she finished as she nearly barreled into a familiar drifloon.

"This way!" Vanilla shouted, opening a door into the passageway that led to the Stone room.

With the route upstairs blocked, and the ghost pokemon nearby, their only hope was to take the stairs leading down.

"Ah, ah, ah…" An infernape declared as it appeared in their path, wagging one of its fingers in a 'no' gesture. "Can't let you do that!"

The drifloon cut them off from the side rooms as the two foxes backed up from the infernape. "Looks like we got here just in time, Monmon. Where's the boss?"

"I'm here." Leshari growled as she entered the room, a bit out of breath from her tirade. "About time you show up." She said, acknowledging her lackeys. "But as for _you_ two," The luxray indicated to the surrounded duo, "I've had enough of your games. I was supposed to bring you back unharmed, but I'm sure Absolution will understand if I deliver you in _mostly_ one piece…" She finished with a shadowy grin.

Vanilla, despite his rising fear, noticed movement behind the Luxray. "Um.. We surrender?"

Chocola was about to question his sanity when she noticed it too. "Oh, um right. Truce?"

Leshari didn't take the bait. "Afraid not, whelp. I've had it up to here with you and your friend's tricks, ever since that thing you pulled back in Jocundale. No, I've been saving something special for you, vixen.

As Leshari approached, she bared her fangs, practically salivating at using them on the pair.

"Um, boss?" Monmon started once he noticed it too.

"What!?" She growled at him, only to see that the monkey was pointing behind her. Turning around, she found herself overshadowed by a glaring, furious kangaskahn. "Oh-" was all she managed before getting hit with a rather large chunk of former wall.

Admiring her work for a moment, Ganna turned to the Leshari's two lackeys. "You got a problem with that?"

"You think you can just-!?" the drifloon started before he found Monmon's paw covering his face.

"What Latte meant to say is that we don't want any trouble. We were just following orders…" The simian said as he started backing up, pulling the drifloon with him.

"Good. Then get this one out of here before I do." The kangaskahn said leaving no doubt about how serious she was being.

Shaking the shock of the last few moments off, Vanilla stopped them from picking their leader up. "Wait, we still need her key!"

Monmon stopped where he stood. Looking back at the kangaskahn, she nodded. Slowly, he removed the lanyard that was fastened around his boss's neck, and set it on the ground before taking off as quickly as he could with the unconscious pokemon draped over his shoulder.

* * *

Once they were out of earshot, Latte drifted closer to his partner. "What was that about?" He whispered.

"Rule number one when dealing with a kangaskahn. Never threaten children around them…" he whispered back before disappearing down the stairs.

* * *

Back in the thrown room, Vanilla greeted their rescuer. "Missus Ganna! You came back!" he said as he gave the larger pokemon an affectionate hug.

"I thought you said you couldn't help us?" Chocola asked. Though she was thankful for the help, she was skeptical.

"Let's just say that I had a talk with the other workers. I was about to pass the word on to the ones up here when I heard the commotion. Looks like I showed up just in time!"

"Wait, how did you get up here ahead of us?"

"She probably took the outer ramp." Vanilla stated.

"Oh, right, the one with all of the stationary guards stationed everywhere." Chocola remembered. Not even her mirages would have helped them with so many pokemon out in the open.

"Yep, that's the one. The guards don't bother the workers too much once we're inside the compound!" Ganna said with a hearty laugh before turning her attention to the item Vanilla was clutching. "I'm assuming that key's the one that unlocks whatever's holding the Council Members? I guess that explains what Perihelion was doing outside."

"Outside?"

"Yeah, he was dismissing the guards along the way. I thought you'd turned him to your side?"

Vanilla looked worried. "No, when we left him in the grass office, he said he couldn't help us either. He only told us where to find the key."

"Then why would he dismiss the guards from what is likely our best escape route?" Chocola chimed in.

"I don't think he did that to help us…" Vanilla thought aloud before handing the key to the kangaskahn. "Take this Missus Ganna, and free the others, please."

"What!? Why? We've almost finished our mission, haven't we?" Chocola asked.

"It's Perihelion." Vanilla stated. "He didn't believe that he could face his brother, and I think that's still the case, yet he's going anyway. If there's the slightest chance that I can help him get through to Absolution, then there won't be a better time to do it."

Chocola looked to the kangaskahn, and then back to Vanilla. "Fine. I can't let you get into trouble without me!"

Ganna hugged the key tightly. "Are you sure? The absols' fight is not your own. No-one will question you if you choose to free the others instead."

" _I_ would." Vanilla declared simply. "Can I leave the freeing of prisoners to you?"

The kangaskahn was reluctant to leave these two in danger so soon after the luxray incident, but even she knew how impossible it would be to fight against the determined look in their eyes. "Yes. You can count on me."

"Thanks, Missus Ganna!"

"Yeah! Thank a lot!"

"Take care you two…" was all Ganna could manage as she watched the two dart off. "Your parents are going to be _absolutely_ cross with me…"


	33. Forum Chamber

In truth, Perihelion had dreaded, yet anticipated this meeting. Before his ability to see into the future had been discovered, his brother, Absolution, had always been a straightforward pokemon. His place as the future head of the Absol family had been questioned ever since, and, in turn, he had grown cold and hostile.

Absolution resembled everything his brother wasn't, and it was Perihelion that had let his brother dictate his own actions. Until now. Peri hated sending those two pups to draw off Leshari, but she would interject herself into their meeting otherwise. At least he'd given the two foxes a way out, provided they made it that far.

Besides, there was always the possibility that he was successful in talking his brother into giving up the position, in which case their capture would be brief. So why was it that he felt so terrified?

"Brother?" Absolution asked as Peri entered the Forum. "What brings you up here today? Have you found it?"

"N-no. I haven't…"

The older absol eyed his younger sibling in silence. "This wouldn't have anything to do with the intruders downstairs, would it? Leshari's dealing with them now, though it would be nice if she'd avoid tearing the place down in the process…"

"Sort of…" Perihelion started before sitting down in front of his brother, just out of striking distance. "I've decided I'm no longer going along with, well, this."

Absolution arched his brows just moments before breaking out in an uproarious laughter. "Ahh, when did you develop a sense of humor?" He said mirthfully, wiping away a tear from his eye. "Well then, I suggest you get back to finding the-"

"N-no, Brother! This is no joke." Perihelion said before attempting to swallow his rising anxiety. "I can't do this anymore…"

"Do what anymore? If you need help in your search, you should just ask."

"This isn't about that. We- We should never have attacked the eevees, taken over their council, or locked them up and attempted to force them to help us. None of it."

Absolution had dropped all pretense of insincerity. "Then how else are we to prepare for the future, _your_ future, brother? You know as well as I the Council rejected us."

"But maybe they would listen if we only discussed things further? If we brought back proof?"

"Proof? Proof! They would have us burned to cinders before they believed your predictions!"

"We can't know that!"

Absolution rose from his position. "You know as well as I that this line of thought is a dangerous position to take…" he said as he began circling his brother. "What if they listened, only to ignore our preparation requests, or took so long to heed our advice that they failed to act until after numerous pokemon are lost to the rifts, hmm? What then?" The older absol turned away. "No, you know we couldn't take any more chances after our initial failure. So why?" He finished, turning to face the younger sibling, only to see his pleading eyes. "My Arceus, _who_ have you been talking too, to fill your head with such ideas?"

"T-there's no one…" Perihelion attempted meekly

"No… you've spoken to our intruder, haven't you… Yes, that's it. Who was it? Tell me!" Absolution demanded.

"NO! I mean, no. No-one talked me into this, brother. Ever since that night of the coup, I've felt, well, wrong. I-I can't sleep, I barely eat, and, and I can't justify locking up the eevees anymore!"

"Hmm… And your sure your, condition, isn't just due to your vision?"

"I'm certain. Please brother, what good will it do for us to save Exile if it's inhabitants only have hate for us?"

"So that's what this is about? I hate to break this to you Peri, but they already hate our clan. They always have."

"No…" Perihelion started before remembering his conversation with Vanilla. "No. I don't believe you. If you'd just stand down, you'd see that you're wrong. Staying here like this will only make things worse, can't you see that?"

Absolution contemplated his brother's words for a moment. "So, you would have us give everything we've accomplished up? Just place all of our bets on the off chance that the Council will listen this time?"

Perihelion nodded. "Yes! After the earthquakes, I'm certain they'll understand. They have to."

Absolution stared at his younger for a moment. "Fine…"

Perihelion nearly jumped at his brother's words. This was the best possible outcome he could have hoped for. "Oh, I knew you'd see reason brother!" Perihelion said while getting up to go. "Come! You'll see. Once we free the others and put this whole coup behind us, we can go back to the way things were!"

"I'm sorry, Perihelion." The older stated as the temperature in the room plummeted.

The younger suddenly found that he could no longer lift his paws from the floor. They had frozen in place before he'd even felt the chill, and the ice seemed to be expanding. "Brother, why?" He asked in confusion.

Absolution was wrapped in a veil of snow and ice. "You would have me throw away all that I've worked for? To go back to the way things were?" He laughed. "Things have never been better, brother! And since it's evident you aren't going to back down, maybe it's time that you sat things out. Maybe once your prediction has passed, you'll have had time to rethink your position…"

"Brother, please!" Perihelion pleaded.

"Goodbye, Bro-"

"STOOOOP!" Vanilla interrupted, braving the cold long enough to charge the elder absol's side.

The blizzard stopped.


	34. Chill

"Mr. Perihelion! Are you okay?" Vanilla asked, his breath visible in the chilled air.

"Y-you shouldn't be here, little one…" The absol answered through chattering teeth.

"But-"

"An eevee! Here?" Absolution interrupted. "How did you escape the… Wait a moment, I know you…" An evil smirk spread across his face as the memory clicked into place. "How fortunate! Brother, it seems you've lead Fayd's son right to me. How thoughtful."

"No! Vanilla, you must flee!" Perihelion pleaded.

The eevee hesitated. Perihelion was stuck, and there was no telling what his brother would subject him to. He couldn't just abandon the absol. Could he?

His hesitation was all Absolution needed, and before Vanilla could act he found himself pinned underneath the older brother.

Chocola watched on in horror was the events unfolded. There was no helping the younger brother without dealing with the ice, but if she could only get close enough to stun the older one with her sneak attack, she might be able to free Vanilla. Throwing up her mirage, she circled around Absolutions field of vision.

"Now that I have you, your father will be forced to do my bidding, just like the others."

"Please, brother! This isn't the-" A quick strike to the back of the neck was all it took to silence Perihelion.

With his brother incapacitated, Absolution turned his attention back to the eevee he'd pinned down already. "Oh, don't give me that look, He'll recover. Eventually. Besides, you have something to be thankful for in all of this."

"And that is?" Vanilla asked as he struggled defiantly from the floor.

"Your very presence will no doubt lessen my brother's suffering. Once the council learns that they have no more means of resistance, we can begin my work."

"And that is?"

"The one thing my brother got right, destruction is coming, little eevee, rest assured. Currently, we lack the means to defend against such an event, but with the power of the Legendary Evolution Stone at _my_ command, we might still have a chance."

"So that's your plan, just evolve all the pokemon in exile?"

"Oh, not all of them. I'm well aware that some can't evolve, such as my kind. There are also those who may refuse to follow my lead, but well, I don't think we'll have to worry about them for long." Vanilla started laughing. "What?"

"You'll fail, Mister Absolution. You may have captured me, but the others will be long gone. I've let all of the other council members go!"

"Very well, I've beaten them once, I can do it ag-!" Absolution attempted before Chocola dropped her mirage in an attempt to use Astonish. "There you are!" He finished as he turned to the zorua and hit her with a Thunder Wave.

Chocola dropped to the ground, paralyzed. "B-but how?"

"Please, your unique talent only goes so far. You're not the only one who knows how to manipulate shadows, you know." As if to make his point, Absolution inhaled, and the shadows in the room grew to unimaginable reaches as he did so. "Besides, this one could hardly have reached this place on his own…" the absol stated, indicating the eevee he still held beneath his paw.

Vanilla continued struggling in a vain attempt to free himself. "Let her go! She has nothing to do with this!"

"Aww, how sweet. I'm touched, really. I hate to break it to you, eevee, but there's nothing you can do for your friend. Just as there's nothing she can do for you." Absolution declared, to which he only received a cold stare from the pokemon below.

It was then that he was hit with a ball of condensed shadow. Chocola had never attempted it before, and as such, it hit with very little power.

"Are you quite done yet?" The absol taunted.

"L-leave him alone!" Chocola said fighting through her paralysis, throwing another weak ball towards Absolution.

The larger pokemon simply took the blow, barely flinching in the process. Picking Vanilla up, he rubbed the smaller pokemon into the ice that secured Perihelion until the eevee's fur began to stick to it as well. Satisfied with his work, he turned to the zorua.

"Leave Chocola alone!" Vanilla cried out.

Absolution stepped right up to the zorua, easily overshadowing her. "I'm not afraid of you!" She declared.

"You really, _really_ , should be." Was all that Absolution said before he sent her flailing towards one of the support pillars.

Again, Chocola attempted to rise and fight, and again Absolution approached her and sent her flying across the room.

Vanilla was doing all that he could to free himself from the ice. His fur was stuck fast, he only needed some leverage. Struggling as best he could, his own body heat seemed to be melting the ice, if only a little. Eventually, he was able to free himself, but, being no longer supported by the ice meant that he was forced to hit the floor rather hard. Though the pain was not nearly as bad as what his friend was suffering.

After the third swipe, the absol turned to the recovering eevee. "What do you think we should do, Little Vanilla? Torture her some more? How much damage do you think it would take until she _breaks_?"

Vanilla simply threw himself over Chocola before another blow could hit its mark.

"Really? Look, Vanilla I appreciate the sentiment." He said, wedging the eevee away from his prey. "But I'm afraid I can't allow for your noble sacrifice, just yet." Tossing the eevee aside, he turned back to Chocola. "Any last words?"

"Run, Vanilla… Get out…" She managed weakly.

"Oh, how touching. She _really_ does ca-" Absolutions words were cut short by the harsh, blinding light burning behind him.


	35. End Game

To a lesser degree, a light surrounded the zorua as well, and Absolution found himself backing away from her subconsciously as the brighter light surrounded her friend.

"What's happening!?" He queried, though not exactly expecting an answer. The light was familiar, as it should be, Absolution had seen plenty of evolution ceremonies in his time, but this was, somehow, different.

At the source of the light was Vanilla, though it didn't make sense. Eevee are no stranger to evolution, but there had been no contact with an Evolution Stone. There was nothing like that kept inside the Forum Chamber.

The whys and hows would have to wait. Absolution didn't have the luxury of letting this eevee gain the upper paw. Just as the light began to dim, he charged up his next attack. Ensuring that his aim was true, the absol unleashed his strongest Shadow Ball yet.

* * *

The first thing that Vanilla noticed was that everything was so very bright. The light made everything look small, yet without any loss of detail. The next thing on the list of things to notice was that he was no longer bound to the ground.

Things were moving slowly, but that somehow seemed normal. It gave him time to appreciate the changes he now felt.

Looking at his front paws, he found four orbs floating around them, each a different combination of color. Further up his foreleg, he discovered that his fur seemed to be growing into some sort of indistinct cloud as the strands faded into the very air.

A dark spot filled his vision, growing as its distance decreased. Instinct drove him to manipulate one of the orbs, the marbled white one, and suddenly the dark spot was no more, it's energy redirected violently around his impromptu shielding.

'Fascinating!' Vanilla thought to himself as he wondered what the other three spheres were for.

Once the problem dealt with, the marble shifted away from his paw and into line with the other twelve orbs that orbited his frame. As another orb replaced it, this one filled with green swirls, Vanilla made a new discovery. His ears, and lower torso also ended in the same wispy nothingness he'd found present on his legs. When had that happened?

Another sphere of black formed in his vision. That wasn't normal, was it? He'd have to put a stop to that. Looking to the four spheres in front of him, he chose the one filled with brown, strong-looking, geometric shapes.

This time, the ground erupted underneath the growing black sphere, sending its creator to the side of the room that was the furthest away from a little light nearby.

Vanilla recognized the little light as his friend, but an explanation as to how or why he felt as such eluded him. The real question was why the room seemed to be growing colder.

Swirls of icy shards twirled around a white pokemon, probably the same one displaced by the rocks earlier, the origin was of no real consequence here. The only thing that mattered was that the shards were threatening his little light.

Choosing the brilliant orange orb, the ice in front of it vanished into steam in an instant, the short blast sending the opponent hurtling into the wall behind him. Vapor rose from the surrounding rock as temperatures attempted some form of equilibrium, and the sound of something collapsing drew Vanilla's attention.

No longer bound by ice, another white pokemon slipped into the haze below. Vanilla felt concern, but none of the four spheres he had at his disposal seemed likely to help. Grabbing the swirling purple orb, he discharged its energy. Nothing seemed to happen, but the ball turned gray and moved to the reserves anyway. Maybe its replacement would be of more use.

As soon as Vanilla floated nearer to the collapsed white pokemon, he felt his opponent gain ground. It was almost certainly an attempt to prevent him from using another orb effectively. Though he wasn't sure how he possessed such information, it didn't matter as much as the electrical energy crackled behind him. Thunder wave, most likely.

It would seem his green orb, the first he'd received from the elemental reserve, was next in line. Thick, yet flexible vines tore through the tile and seized the opponent's rear paws, instantly altering his trajectory. The white pokemon hit the ground, hard, his attack interrupted long before it could connect.

Recovering from the fall, the white pokemon was breathing heavily now, and seemed to be having trouble seeing out of one of his eyes. The other, fully functional eye glowed with both hatred and fear.

"What _are_ you!?" Absolution questioned in desperation.

"Curious." His own voice boomed. "An odd question. I'm still me, aren't I? That would make the most sense, and yet, I'm no longer the old me, aren't I? Therefore, to answer your question, I am the same, and yet I am not."

"B-but you've evolved!"

"That would be apparent."

Absolution was only buying time to think about his next course of action. Certainly, Vanilla's change had to have been caused by something, he only needed to discover what it was, then maybe… "How?" he asked.

"To be honest, I'm not really-" Vanilla started before his opponent used Shadow Pulse to remove his bonds.

The evolved eevee wasn't the only thing glowing in the room, Absolution had noticed. His friend, the zorua, was glowing slightly too. Or rather, it was the stone around her neck that was shining. 'That must be it, the key to this whole ordeal!' The absol thought before breaking through the vines with his attack. 'If I can finish the zorua off, it might be enough to subdue the whelp!' he thought as he dashed off.

The eevee, however, had made his move even before he had finished his sentence. Using the misty blue orb, the absol suddenly found himself at the receiving end of his own Thunder Wave.

The paralysis sent him tumbling to the ground in a heap. Struggling to move was just about the only thing he could do. "No!" Absolution shouted. He'd been so close.

"This fight is over. That much should be obvious?"

"It will _never_ be over!" Absolution shouted as he attempted to charge a Shadow Ball. His target was the zorua, but, before he could finish his last-ditch attack, a harsh beam of pure, psychic light smashed into him from above. Not even a dark-type was immune to the level of energy he was being bombarded with, and soon, the absol's ball of shadow slipped away along with his last scrap of consciousness.


	36. Reunification

"Is it clear, Fryt?" The wyveon asked upon the return of the whispeon.

"It is, Skayl." The ghost type eevolution responded.

Together with Hayz, the soareon, the three were the only ones who could scale the exterior of the Central Council Building faster than their ground-bound brethren. With the all clear from the incorporeal member, the three entered the Forum Chamber and were astonished at what they found.

Both absol brothers, a zorua, and their own Vanilla lie unconscious on the ground. What astonished them more than that was the sheer level of destruction evident in the room. Pillars of stone erupted through the floor, some of the stonework seemed to have melted in places, and that wasn't counting the general disarray from all of the other superficial damage.

"What happened in here?" Was all Hayz could ask as she dropped down near Vanilla. Miraculously, he was more or less unharmed.

Disregarding the absol for now, Skayl checked on the zorua. "This must be the one Ganna mentioned…" The poor thing was pretty beat up. It didn't look like she was in any danger of dying, but to leave her in this state would be cruel. "Fayd, go find an audino or a chansey for this one. And please make haste, if you would."

"What about these two?" the ghost asked of two absol.

"The others'll be here soon enough, now go!" Skayl repeated.

When they had been released by the loyal servant kangaskahn, the eevolutions had expected a fight, but by the looks of things, the fight had beat them here by a good margin. The only problem was that none of the damage made any sense. Neither of the pups could manage these kinds of attacks, and even the brothers' known attacks didn't account for either the rock-type or the grass-type debris that was present.

"Do you think we'll be okay?" Hayz asked.

"Um, yeah? I'm sure this one'll be fine after she gets a good night of sleep or two." The wyveon proclaimed while gesturing towards the zorua.

"No. That's not it. I was wondering if we could take on whatever it was that did this…" the flying-type said as she gestured around the room.

"What do you mean? You think some other pokemon attacked everyone here and wrecked the place?"

"Well, yeah. Look at it from here…" Hayz suggested as she hovered to the Forum's center. "All of the damage seems to come from here."

Sure enough, there seemed to be an epicenter. But that led to a new question. "Then what's Vanilla doing at the center of it all?"

"I'm not sure."

"Well, let's hope he was able to get a good look at it. A pokemon that's that strong is likely not one that we should wish to cross."

The other members arrived in a trickle, based on how practiced they were at traversing the outer ramp. They too had expected a battle, only to find the remains of one. Orders were given to apprehend the absol. Both of them.

It was then that Vanilla managed to break through his exhaustion. "No, not him." He said weakly as they attempted to bind Perihelion. "Not him…"

Before anyone could react to the outburst, Cream broke into the room in a blitz. "Vanilla!?" Word had apparently spread that her son was inside the Forum. Wasting no time, she was at his side in an instant. Picking him up, her embrace was almost enough to threaten asphyxiation. "Oh, Sweetie! I was so worried!"

"…I'm glad you're here, mom." Vanilla attempted through his mother's tight grip. Her hold had managed to knock some of the sleep from him, at any rate.

Cream continued to hold her son until the absol had both been carried out, one of them bound, and the zorua's wounds had been tended to.

Once his friend was confirmed to be safe, Vanilla could finally let his worries fade away.

He was home. Home at last.


	37. Forum

When Chocola awoke, she winced. Every muscle, joint, and bone seemed to be sore. What _had_ she been doing to get like that? 'Oh right, chasing after Vanilla…' she winced again at the thought.

She seemed to be tucked into a bed at the moment. It was probably the softest one she'd ever been in, not that she'd slept in many. If it wasn't for her soreness, she'd probably be pretty comfortable right now.

"Ah, I see that you're awake." A dark figure said from across the room.

Chocola didn't want to open her eyes for fear of the action causing further pain, but she relented. Standing at the foot of the bed was an umbreon.

"You're-!?"

"The Dark-type Council seat? Yes, I am. You may call me Fayd."

The zorua laughed a bit, only to immediately regret it. "Ow!" She pause to take in a breathe of air. "I was going to say, Vanilla's dad…"

"Ah, yes. I suppose that is also accurate. You should know that he wanted to be here when you woke up, but I'm afraid that he's occupied at the moment."

"Where is he?"

"He's currently giving testimony for the rest of the Forum." Fayd paused as if to examine the zorua's condition, before continuing. "If you're feeling up to it, I can escort you up there. Everyone's been looking forward to hearing your side of the story as well."

She flexed her paw experimentally. She wasn't injured, thankfully, and still possessed full range of motion. "I think I'm okay." Chocola stated as she squirmed out from beneath the covers, every action becoming less painful than the last. "I must have really had a number done on me…" She tried to say humorously.

"If you don't remember, then perhaps it is best to leave out those particular details. What's important is that you are well." Fayd stated as he helped Chocola to the floor.

"I suppose so…?" the zorua stated as she tested her ability to stand.

"Good. Well, If you would follow me, I'll explain what's expected of you in the Forum."

"Wait, if there's one of these important meetings going on, and you're one of the important members, shouldn't you be up there instead of helping me?" Chocola inquired.

The question caught the umbreon off-guard. "Well, due to nature of my son's involvement, I've preemptively abstained from any votes that this event may invoke. Also, you are a dark-type pokemon, so it is my duty to ensure your well-being. Besides, I've heard all that Vanilla has to say on the matter." Fayd turned and gave the zorua a smile. "I must say that he's spoken very, energetically, about your actions."

"Oh?"

"Not that I wish to downplay your heroics, Miss Chocola. But before the coup, Vanilla was always, well, taciturn. Withdrawn. But, in meeting you, he's changed, and for the better, if this event is any indication. For that, I am truly thankful."

'That might explain a few things.' Chocola thought to herself. It was nice to know when you've had an effect on someone, but at the same time, it was an odd feeling.

Not missing a beat, theumbreon continued. "With that out of the way, let me give you a briefing on the sort of questions that'll be asked of you…"

* * *

When they reached the forum, Vanilla was still giving his report to the council. Even as so many pokemon watched on, including the two caged absol, the eevee carried on as though this were an everyday occurrence, his report accentuated by his movements. Each action designed to further drive home his narrative.

"About time you appeared, husband." A lightly-colored eevee said as she approached Fayd. "It turns out that he's a natural, just like his father." She said with a smile.

"So it would seem." The umbreon noted.

"Oh, Miss Chocola. I'm glad to see that you're awake! I'd like to thank you for keeping my son out of trouble, but it seems as though you two can't get enough of it." She said with a wink. "He's grown so much since he left, If I wasn't his mother, I'd scarcely recognize him…" the eevee finished, her voice full of motherly adoration.

Vanilla had made eye contact with Chocola just as he started discussing the moment they had entered the forum. She had to admit, he really seemed to be in his element here.

His tale continued much like she remembered it. But then, just as he reached the part where Vanilla had tried to protect her from Absolution, his story stopped. As he did so, he looked towards Chocola with a tilt of his head, as if to pass her a silent message that his miracle was to remain their secret.

As he finished his tale, questions were asked, to which Vanilla answered with all the honesty he possessed. That is, until questions about the final battle were raised.

"I'm afraid I don't remember anything after I was tossed aside." He finished with his ever-present smile.

Thoughts of 'he's pretty good' and 'he's playing a dangerous game' crossed Chocola's mind simultaneously. Maybe she was rubbing off on him more than she'd thought.

As the questions ended, Vanilla was dismissed from the forum. Discussions sprang up amongst the delegation as he left the podium.

"How was it?" Vanilla asked as he reached his family.

"You did wonderfully, Vanilla!" Cream said as she embraced her son.

Fayd simply acknowledged his approval with a nod.

Chocola, on the other paw, knew he had already hidden something, and that his question referred not to his story, but to his act. "Not bad, Vanilla." She said, giving him an approving grin.

At her answer, Vanilla practically tackled her in a hug, but pulled away immediately as she groaned in pain. "Oh, Chocola! I'm sorry, did I injure you?"

"No, furball. I'm just a little sore still…"

"Oh, right…" He stated, visibly relieved.

Before Chocola could ask her friend what was going on, she was stopped by an announcement from the council.

"Would Miss Chocola, of Jocundale, please take the stand as witness?" A sylveon sitting next to an old eevee called out.

"That's your cue." Fayd indicated as he gave the zorua a gentle nudge.

Making her way to the little stage set between the council's tables, Chocola's anxiety seemed to grow with every step. She'd never had so many eyes on her before, at least not from those expecting something from her.

Nervously, she looked back to the Forum's entrance, where Vanilla stood with his family.

Her friend only nodded his encouragement, mouthing 'You'll do fine!", while waving his paw in a silly motion.

'That's easy for you to say.' She thought as she pressed forward.

"Miss Chocola. We understand that you were unconscious until very recently, only waking up after we'd initiated this Tribunal. Is this correct?" The sylveon questioned.

She tried to say yes, but the words weren't coming out. What was wrong?

Turning back to her friend, Vanilla just made exaggerated motions of inhalation and slowly breathing out. 'Breathe.' He mouthed.

Taking his advice, she took in a deep breath and carefully exhaled.

"Miss, Chocola?" The eevee asked.

She cleared her throat before speaking. "Yes. Sorry, I guess I still haven't fully awoken yet…"

"And you believe you're well enough to give your testimony here today?"

The zorua could always appreciate additional rest, but she didn't make her way all the way to the top of the building to back out now. "I believe I am, yes."

"Alright. Since you were not here for the opening of this Forum, I'll explain it to you." The sylveon continued. "I am Lady Cordon, Second to Lord Stok, we are gathered here in order to understand the events that happened during the course of the coup attempt. Admittedly, we were indisposed at the time, so, we are forced to turn to others for answers. It is our understanding that you were present during the final hours of the confrontation. Is this correct?"

"Yes." Chocola stated simply.

"Now that that's been established, Miss Chocola, would you care to brief us on all that you remember during your infiltration two days ago?"

She'd been asleep for two days!? She'd never slept that long before. What _had_ happened to her?

"Miss Chocola?" Lord Stok asked again. "If you are still feeling unwell, we can postpone this part of the proceedings until a future date." He suggested.

"I- um. No, I'm fine, I just wasn't aware how much time has passed, is all…" the zorua admitted. Sighing heavily at her own interruption, she started her recollection of the sneaky operation she and Vanilla had both taken part in.


	38. Celebration

The sentencing was over, as was their adventure. Absolution was to be banished to Oust Isle, Perihelion would be monitored for an indefinite period of time, and Vanilla had been reunited with his family. All in all, everything had worked out.

And yet, all Chocola could feel was a bit of pensiveness. Even as the rest of the gathering partied on, with Vanilla as its center of attention, the zorua found herself on the outer perimeter of the celebration.

Watching on, Vanilla seemed to be better at mingling than he was at giving testimony. Even now he seemed to be jovially conversing with both Lord Stok and Lady Cordon. Here, it seemed, the eevee was more in his element than ever.

Every now and then, some interested party would approach and congratulate her on her own accomplishments. For some reason, however, Chocola found that each conversation wore on her nerves. Maybe fancy parties just weren't for her?

Vanilla still wore the silly smile he always did. He was home.

So why wasn't Chocola happy for him? He was her friend, wasn't he?. Of course he was. They'd saved each other enough times for there to be no reason to question that.

Maybe it was just that, with the adventure over, it time for her to head to her own home?

"Thinking of leaving so soon?" Cream caught the zorua before she could make her escape. "Before you go, do you mind if we talk for a bit? We never really had any opportunity to do so properly."

"Um, I guess so…?" She looked at Vanilla again. At least _he_ didn't seem to be awkward around adults.

"I know just the place." Cream suggested. "Come with me, I think you'll enjoy it."

At the rate things were going, Chocola was doubtful of the claim. The newness of the city could only hold her interest for so long, but not wanting to displease her friend's mother, the zorua followed along.

Cream cut a path around the outskirts of the party, eventually entering a tiny corridor that was partially hidden by one of the columns in the back of the Forum Chamber. The path led outside, to the backside of the building. From there, the eevee revealed a set of stairs that cut around the top of the dome, leading to the very top of the building.

Upon reaching their destination, Cream indicated that her follower was to sit beside her. Chocola did as instructed, and was surprised with a nearly aerial view of Convocity's nocturnal skyline.

Breathing deeply, Cream took in the cool night air. "This is probably my favorite place in all of Convocity." She declared.

Chocola had to agree. The little warm, orange fires that pokemon used to light up their evening contrasted the cold blue stars of the night sky perfectly.

"I like your necklace." Cream said as she pointed to the stone around the zorua's neck. "It's quite lovely." She added.

"Thanks, I-" Chocola stopped. The stone wasn't black anymore. It was filled with every color imaginable, and in the middle, there seemed to be a little twisted ribbon to match. When had that changed?

"I've noticed that my Vanilla has one too. Did you give it to him?" Cream asked, ignoring the zorua's slight shock.

"I um, yes Ma'am. Although he was the one who helped me find that one."

"So I've heard…" Cream said, referring to the stories her son has, no doubt, already told. "I actually met Vanilla's father up here. I had intended to sneak away from a party much like the one below. So I came to visit my favorite place, and low and behold, I found Fayd taking my favorite spot! Oh, I was so mad at him for that! He'd actually been up here before that party had began, all to look at the stars before the sun had even set."

Tilting her head to the side, Chocola couldn't help but wonder why she was being told, what she was certain was, such a private story.

As if to answer her unspoken question, Cream continued. "I'm not really sure why I'm telling you this. I just wanted to thank you for all you've given my son. You were willing to throw your life on the line for him, and there's nothing I can do to repay you for that."

"Aww, Missus Cream, you really don't have to-"

"No, I have to at least try! When I forced him to leave, I abandoned him into a cruel, mysterious world. And you saved him. For that, I'll always be grateful."

Chocola was silent. Vanilla's mother was pouring out her soul, and here she was still contemplating disappearing back home.

Cream picked up on the silence. "You _were_ planning on leaving, weren't you?"

Ears, drooping in admittance, Chocola looked away from the skyline and at her own tail.

Another silence filled the air. "You could try it. I'm sure you'd likely succeed with your skill set." Cream admitted. "But I think you'd regret it, in the end…"

The zorua looked at the eevee in confusion. What did she know about how Chocola would feel? _She_ didn't even know how she would feel.

"I'm guessing by that look, you want to know how I would know. Some would call it 'mother's intuition' or something equally supernatural. But in truth, I've seen the way you two interact. You two can't stand being separated for long."

"He's got a funny way of showing it…" Chocola grumbled as she recalled the fact that Vanilla was living it up downstairs.

"It's funny you should say that…" Cream said with a grin. "Did you notice that, even though he's been preoccupied with the other patrons tonight, he's never once let you out of his sight? Every conversation he's had or joke he's participated in, every one of them, he's always made sure his back was never turned towards you. Even if his focus is directed elsewhere, he always checks back to see if you're still there, Chocola. He's probably looking for you right now."

Chocola leaned back, a little dumbstruck. Was that true? The entire party, she'd always had had a line of sight to her friend, hadn't she? But what did that have to do with her not liking the idea of leaving?

Cream turned to leave. "Want to know a little secret?" She asked without waiting for a response. "You know that everything I've said is true because you haven't taken your eyes off of Vanilla, either…" Cream finished with a knowing smile before heading back downstairs.

Very nearly panicking then and there, Chocola found herself alone with her thoughts and thankfully decided against anything rash while sitting atop of a very tall building.

Was it true? With all of the adventuring, Chocola had somehow managed to avoid thinking about it. There were just so many things to consider. At first, she didn't want to end up pushing her only friend in that direction, but then how did everything turn out that way, anyway? And if so, then why was she feeling so anxious, especially now that she realized that he felt the same way too? Didn't he?

Her heart almost stopped when she heard her name being called by the very eevee she couldn't seem to get off her mind. Everything was most certainly true.

"Oh, here you are!" Vanilla exclaimed with a genuine grin on his face.

Shaking herself stoic, Chocola hoped that it looked like she was shaking off the chill. "Right, I was just looking at the stars is all. I think that I'm just not one for crowds." She admitted. "What's up?"

Vanilla didn't answer right away. Instead, he sat down next to her and took the sights in himself. The view was impressive. No wonder his mom recommended it. "Nothing's wrong, exactly…"

"Then what?"

Turning to his friend, Vanilla's ears drooped a little. "I have to come to a decision, but it isn't one I want to take lightly." He said cryptically.

Chocola could only sit there, filled with both intrigue and fear, as she waited to hear what Vanilla was going to say next.


	39. Starlight

"What!?" Chocola said, more than a little dumbstruck. She punched Vanilla in the shoulder with a bit more force than was absolutely necessary.

"Hey, it's not like I threw the offer in his face. I just told Lord Stok that I needed time to think about it! So why are you still hitting me!"

Because she knew what it meant to throw away an offer like that. She could hardly believe anyone would pass up the chance to become the next Normal-Type Council seat. Even if the council members were more or less equals, the _eevee_ sitting at the table was the one in charge of the council's operations, more or less. That's why the position was given the title of lord along with an elected second in command. But Chocola had to admit that she was probably just mad that Vanilla wasn't talking about something _else_.

"I- Sorry…" Chocola said as she helped the eevee back up. "I was, distracted…" She admitted, somewhat flustered. "So, what are you thinking?"

"I don't know… I mean, I'm not sure I'm ready to take on that kind of responsibility."

"And exactly which part of nearly-singlepawedly stopping a coup was _your_ responsibility?" Chocola teased.

Vanilla just raised an eyebrow at the vixen. "That was different. I was trying to help my family, and we just kinda got pulled into everything."

"Yeah, so?"

"So? So, I've learned more about the outside world during the last two weeks than I have during the rest of my entire life! How can I help to rule effectively if there's still so much more I can learn, and I know for a fact that the kind of lessons being taught out there aren't the kind of ones that can simply be taught. And besides…" Vanilla hesitated.

Chocola wasn't going to let him finish on that note. "Besides what?"

"Besides," he repeated, "You wanted to explore the rest of Exile, didn't you? I kinda wanted to know if I could go with you…?

"What?!" the zorua exclaimed. She'd spent so much of her time helping Vanilla with his dreams, that she'd nearly forgotten her own. "Of course you can come! Why would you think otherwise?"

"Well, It's just that, I didn't know how you felt after you got hurt. You were trying to protect me and, and…" Vanilla grin had vanished.

Chocola pulled him into a hug before the sudden outburst of emotion could affect her too much. "That's what this is about? Silly fox…" She cooed into his ear. "I may have been beaten up, it might have even been pretty bad, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat."

"Bu-But I don't know i-if I can see you get hurt again…"

She held Vanilla out at a forepaw's length and looked him in the eye. "If you're serious about this whole adventuring thing, you're going to have to realize that that's always a possibility. We knew that what happen _could_ happen before we ever entered the room that night, and we went in anyway. That's what adventurers _do_ , Vanilla." She pulled him into another hug as he began to calm down. "Besides," she added, "we seem to be pretty good at it, all things considered."

"What, like that fact that we don't really know how to fight?"

"Hehe, or, like how we always get into more trouble than bargained for?"

Vanilla took a deep breath. "Thanks, Chocola."

"So what are you going to tell that Lord Stok guy?"

"I don't know… He was pretty adamant about it. Of the council members, his seat is the only one that's allowed to choose the next in line for succession. Lady Cordon has been trying to convince him to pick someone for years. But with the coup, he's finally decided that it's time to retire."

"So it's not a matter of if, but of when…"

"Precisely." Vanilla groaned in frustration as he tried to work out a solution.

Chocola was reluctant to pull him out of his reverie, but she had something on her own mind. "Speaking of the coup, and how we stopped it, what exactly happened back there? And why didn't you want to tell anyone about it?"

"Oh, right. That…" Vanilla sighed. "I'm not really sure, to be honest. I'd imagine it was something akin to an evolution."

"But you're still an eevee?" Chocola said poking his side. "Aren't you?"

Vanilla laughed as she hit his funny bone. "Hey! Stop! And yes, I am still an eevee."

"So you get to have some sort of temporary evolution that gives you crazy awesome powers and you don't want to tell anyone?"

"Well, since we don't know exactly what caused it, and because possessing such power is probably, no-. It's _definitely_ very dangerous. There's so little we do know about what happened that it's for the best that as few pokemon know about it as possible."

Chocola thought about that for a moment. It made sense, of course, but there was one thing that still bugged her. "But Absolution knows…"

"Yes, but he also probably knows that no-one will believe he was beaten by some super-eevee that could use multiple elemental attacks."

"Hehehe! Are we calling it 'super-eevee' now?" she teased.

"Nooo…" Vanilla blushed in embarrassment. "I just haven't put a bunch of time into naming whatever it was."

"Well then, here's to hoping you can come up with a better name while we explore Exile!" Chocola said as she patted the eevee on the back. "When do we leave?"

"I don't know." Vanilla surmised, shrugging. "How long do you think it will take to pry me out of Lady Cordon's ribbons? After she learns that I told Lord Stok that I can't take his place, that is."


	40. Journey Home

What was supposed to have been a simple farewell, as Chocola and Vanilla started their journey anew, had turned into quite the procession as they made their way to Convocity's outer gate.

Nearly all of the Council was present to offer the pair a hero's farewell. Perihelion among them, apparently under the orders of Lord Stock himself. Lady Cordon would have joined them, but it was likely that she was still furious at Vanilla for his proposal. Though whether she was more angry at the young eevee for his proposal or Lord Stok's acceptance of it, none could tell.

Chocola, of course, found the whole ordeal immensely amusing. "Hehe! You're going to have to tell me what did to convince them to follow through with this."

Vanilla agreed to tell her later. After all, it would be something to talk about during the trip. For now, he only wished to deal with his mother.

"I-I never thought I would be saying goodbye again so soon." Cream said as she tearfully embraced her son. Of those present, she'd taken the longest to convince that Vanilla's intentions were for the best.

"At least this time, it's on our terms." Vanilla observed. "And maybe this time, I won't have to run as far." He quipped.

Cream could only laugh and hug him tighter before finally relinquishing her embrace. "You be careful out there, okay?"

"Yes, Mom. We will."

Turning to Chocola, Cream continued. "That goes double for you missy. I want both of you to return in one piece."

"Yes Ma'am!" Chocola promised.

It was Lord Stok's turn to approached the two adventurers. "I too look forward to the day you return. I expect great things from you both. Convocity will always welcome you both should you decide to suspend your journey."

Cheers of 'Good luck!' and 'Safe travels!' rang out from the gathered crowd. It was time to leave. Making their way into the distance, Chocola and Vanilla waved their goodbyes one last time before turning away from the city once more. They had no immediate plans to return, so it was likely going to be a while before they saw the city again.

Cream watched until they disappeared from sight, wondering, not for the first time, if she'd ever see her boy again.

"Those two will be fine." Perihelion stated, startling the eevee in the process.

"Oh?" Cream asked, still a little suspicious of the absol.

"I had a chance to talk with both of them before-…" Perihelion hesitated. "Despite the odds being strictly against them, those two succeeded where I could not. And I'd like to believe that, with them, a new era begins…"

Cream stood there a while longer. "Thanks, Perihelion…" She said, drying her eyes.

Lord Stok gave the absol an order to follow. "Your thanks are unnecessary, Caer. I have much to atone for. Showing support when it is needed is the least I could do." Perihelion finished as he turned to leave.

In any extent, theabsol was right. Of that, Cream was sure. After all, they've already performed the impossible once, what more could she ask for?

* * *

"Finally. I'd never thought I'd get tired of a city!" Chocola exclaimed as she took a moment to really stretch her legs. "So, where to now?"

"Well, I thought we'd head straight back to your house so that you could apologize to Reiga."

"Um, better idea. How about we do _anything_ else?"

"Hah! No. You'll have to apologize to her at some point. Might as well get it done early so that we can fully focus on all of our future adventures."

Chocola sighed. "Fine. But can we not take the direct route, at least?"

Vanilla thought about it for a moment, though more for effect than actually needing to think about it. "…I don't know… Reiga might be pretty mad…"

"Please? I need time to think about my excu-! Er, my apology!" Chocola pleaded.

"Okay, fine. We can take the same route we used earlier, I suppose." Vanilla finally conceded.

"I was thinking more along the lines of going through Loamwood Town first."

"Only if you want to try swimming across that river. With everything going on in with the Council, they've only just started fixing the bridge. The route's closed until they've finished."

"Dang." Chocola huffed in disappointment before recalling something. "Oh! Wait, hehehe…"

"What?" Vanilla asked, both concerned and curious.

"Oh, nothing. At least, not until we run into _him_ again." the zorua teased cryptically.


	41. Briar Sink

They didn't have to go far before Chocola found what she was looking for, or rather, what she could no longer find. Just beyond the collapsed bridge where they had rescued a shinx only a few days prior, they reached the spot where they'd discovered a snorlax. Only this time, the rotund pokemon was nowhere to be found.

"Hey! That snorlax is gone!" Chocola exclaimed as she ran ahead. "That means we can explore the-!" She stopped in her tracks.

"What's wrong?" Vanilla asked at his friend's sudden dumbfounded look. Looking into the hole that the snorlax had been sleeping in front of, he understood why. "Oh, my. We'd best hurry then, Chocola. We don't want to waste an entire day exploring your cave now…"

"Har, har… Gah! I've never even really met the snorlax, and yet, I already have an immense dislike for the guy!" she shot back as she gazed into a cave that was barely large enough to hold a medium-sized pokemon. "He should know better than to stand in between a girl and her treasure. Twice!"

"I'm pretty sure that there isn't any-" But before Vanilla could finish, Chocola had taken off in the direction of the larger pokemon's tracks.

"Come-on Vanilla! He can't have gotten far!" She yelled back as she ran.

Vanilla let out a deep sigh before giving chase. "So it begins…"

The trail followed the path for a few hours before veering off the trail and into a location that had once been lined with dangerous-looking plants. Large swaths of the thorny vines on both sides of the pokemon's footprints had all but vanished.

It wasn't long before Chocola found her quarry. Lying in the middle of a clearing, no doubt created by the pokemon lying in the middle of it, was the snorlax.

"Oh, come on! Really!?" Chocola shouted in exasperation. "He's already asleep!?"

"That's generally what their species is known for…" Vanilla observed. "Though maybe this was his equivalent of a midnight snack?" He noted, seeing as how there were still some of the plants left encircling the area.

Chocola jumped on top of the snorlax in an attempt to vent her frustration with the pokemon, but she stopped herself. She perked her ears up, listening.

Vanilla noticed her behavior too. "What's wrong this time?" he asked.

"You don't hear that?"

"Hear what?"

The zorua only 'shushed' him before jumping down into the soft dirt. Still following some unperceived sound, she reached the edge of the clearing. With nowhere else to go, she began to dig.

"Chocola?"

"Help me dig, Vanilla. I think there's something nearby."

Before the eevee could ask for clarification, she answered his unasked question.

"I think it's a shiny!"

"Do the shinies normally talk to you, or-!" Vanilla started before being caught off guard. As he approached his friend's rapidly growing pit, he realized that the dirt was shifting beneath him. "Chocola?" was all that he could ask before the ground opened up, swallowing them both.

* * *

Even as the dust began to settle it was still thick enough to cause Chocola a brief coughing fit. Being the first one on the ground, she'd managed to roll away from the rest of the debris.

Vanilla had not been so lucky. Wasting no time in digging him out of the pile of rubble, her quest for shinies had long been forgotten.

The eevee found himself waking up to a shadow hovering over him, animatedly blocking the light filtering through the dust. "Chocola?" he coughed.

"Vanilla!" She practically squealed. "Are you all right?"

Taking in the cavernous surroundings, it took a moment for his eyes to adjust. He was covered in dust, but taking a step to better shake himself off proved to be a bit too painful. With a yelp, he found his leg had been damaged, either by the debris, or the fall itself. "Guess we're not going to be saving those Oran berries for later then…" he said, wincing through the pain.

"I'm sorry Vanilla! I don't know what came over me!"

"Heh," he started as Chocola searched through her bag for the medicinal fruit. "And here I was thinking I didn't want to see _you_ get hurt during our adventures."

"Not funny, Vanilla. Now hush up and eat this." She ordered whilst handing him a small blue berry.

Not wanting to wallow in pain any longer than he had to, Vanilla didn't argue. While munching on hard fruit, he took in the surroundings. They had descended into a cave, the light of day filtered through the hole they had fallen through. A small stream cut through the rocky floor, but the roof seemed to be composed of more roots and dirt than stone. "It looks like snorlax's snack weakened the roof…" the eevee observed.

"Doesn't look like we can climb back up either." Chocola noted. "These roots are way too thin to support either of us."

The cave itself narrowed rapidly as it followed the stream's path, essentially making their entrance a dead-end for anything other than a water type. "Guess that means we go that way." Vanilla hesitatingly recommended. If his sense of direction was to be trusted, whatever had been calling to Chocola also lived in that direction.

"We could try calling for help?" the zorua suggested.

Vanilla thought about it for a moment. "Unless our snorlax friend is a light sleeper, I don't think anyone else is close enough to hear us." Vanilla stated, though he was more worried about who else might overhear. Whomever, or whatever, it was had already managed to draw them into a trap of sorts, after all.

"I suppose you're right." Chocola said as she gave one of the lower-hanging roots a test-tug. It promptly snapped at its tenuous connection with the ceiling. Using them to climb out was a non-starter, and they both knew it. "How are you holding up?"

Looking at his foreleg, it had swollen slightly, but where there had been pain he now felt a dull ache. Testing it, Vanilla managed to stand, but decided it was best if he kept most of his weight off of it. "I'll manage." He said, a little shakily.

Looking at her friend with worry wasn't going to get either of them anywhere. "Come on then, no sense waiting around here…" Chocola declared as she saddled up next to Vanilla, just in case he needed the support.

"Thanks Chocola, but I'm fine. Really." The eevee assured her.

But the zorua didn't buy a word of it.


	42. Anchor

Traveling along the stream, the tunnel was rather linear. Only a few bends along the way, but at no point were there any side tunnels to explore.

"Do you hear it now?" Chocola asked.

Vanilla nearly asked her what she was referring to before remembering the whole reason they were down inside of the cave in the first place. He was about to dismiss her antics as Chocola being herself when his ear twitched.

At first, he'd dismissed the unsteady beat as a symptom of his current affliction, a simple pulse that nearly matched what he assumed was his own heartbeat. But now, it was if the air in the tunnel was halfheartedly pressing down on him with every thump. Every step forward seemed to raise the amplitude by an almost negligible amount.

Trying not to let panic set in, Vanilla acknowledged that his friend wasn't entirely crazy. "Y-yeah, I think I hear it too…"

"What do you think it is?"

Before the eevee could answer, they saw light pour into the tunnel from somewhere up ahead. Pressing on, with Vanilla continuing to ignoring the pain in his leg, the duo soon found themselves in front of a spacious hollow with a hole in the roof. Unlike their makeshift entrance, this one was far older. Instead of vines, there were sturdy tree roots that lined the walls all the way to the floor.

"Maybe we can get out here?" Vanilla stated as he scanned the walls for suitable ledges.

Chocola seemed to ignore his observation, as her attention had turned elsewhere. As the stream opened up into a pool, she found herself staring at the monolith embedded in the pool's center.

Noticing his friend's distraction, Vanilla turned his attention towards the pillar as well. At first glance, it was nothing more than an odd cave formation, but now, well, it seemed as though they'd found their shiny.

"What do you think it is?" the vixen asked as she skirted the water trying to get a better look.

Vanilla noticed that the shallow water seemed to rise and fall with the same pulsating beat as the rest of the cave. "I'm not sure…"

Testing the water, Chocola determined that it was rather cold, but not deep enough to dissuade her investigation of the pillar. "I think it's glowing." She noted. "Maybe it's some sort of legendary evolution stone?"

As she approached the stone, the glow increased in intensity, and soon Vanilla could see it too. "Hmm, I don't recall the Legendary Evolution Stone ever glowing without a pokemon touching it first."

Curiosity getting the better of her with every step, she found that the glow seemed to be fairly localized within the stone. As she wandered around the base, the glow seemed to follow.

To the eevee on the shore, however, the movement of the stone's internal light was enough to stand his fur on end. The unnatural glow certainly had a ghostly demeanor to it. "I-I think we should leave it alone for now. We can always come back and-" Vanilla was cut off when Chocola suddenly reared up and placed both of her front paws on the stone.

"It's warm." She noted just before the stone itself began crackling with energy.

The air inside the room became violently charged with energy, all of it seeming to focus upon Chocola at its center. Arcs of lightning carved out previously unknown runes that had been hidden underneath the pool. The strange blue bolts darted about but eventually pooled together in a floating sphere above the pillar.

Scarcely audible against the torrent of electricity-like energy, Vanilla called out to his friend. But it was to no avail. As the energy finished gathering above the stone, it exploded into a column of light that encapsulated the zorua.

The burst lifted Chocola off of her feet, and for a brief moment, her eyes glowed white with whatever power had just entered her body. With the transfer of power complete, the stone shattered violently, with enough force to send both foxes airborne.

* * *

Vanilla recovered first. He felt a little blood trickle from various places and judging from the status of the demolished stone, his injuries were likely sourced from the stone's blast itself. Thankfully, nothing felt too serious, at least not moreso than his other immediate concern. Rushing to Chocola, he found her lying relatively unscathed, with the exception of her unconscious form lying there with her eyes open, the light still pouring from them.

No visible injuries save her eyes, it appeared to Vanilla that she seemed to be in some sort of sleep state. To be honest, he'd never seen anything quite like it before. After repeated, yet failed, attempts at waking his friend, he found his panic rising.

Just as he started running worst-case scenarios in his head, trying to figure out how they were going to escape this mess, he noticed tears in Chocola's eyes.

Leaning closer, he could only make out that one word. "Mom…" She breathed, sounding both confused and elated as if the light were invoking a memory.

He knew nothing of her mother. But if there were some answers to be had, or even a cure for her condition, he knew whom he would have to ask first. His new destination was the old destination, Vanilla would have to take his friend home. From there, he would get some answers.

Realizing that this was no time for panic, the eevee steeled himself for the work ahead. His own injuries would make the work somewhat difficult, but he would just have to manage. His friend needed him, all he had to do was find a way out of the cave.

The first thing he did was locate a few promising branches that stuck out from the walls. A quick tackle made short work of them. Gathering three of them, two long and one short, he placed the three sticks around his friend.

Reluctant to leave Chocola behind, but not having another option, Vanilla left his own pack nearby and took off down the tunnel towards the spot where they had fallen. That was where he would find the last few pieces he needed to complete his plan.

Ignoring the pain was difficult, but saving Chocola was more important. It didn't take long to reach the entrance, and it took him even less time to secure a few promising vines. Chewing the thorns off, and twisting the strands together as best he could, Vanilla formed a crude rope. Looping it around his neck, he took off down the tunnel towards the hollow.

Vanilla was both relieved and pained to see his friend still lying where he left her, but he got to work anyway. Tying the branches together, he fashioned a harness that he could use to pull Chocola up after him. With a little work, he even managed to tie her to the supports in a way that would keep her from falling off of the structure.

Now for the hard part. The eevee wasn't exactly an experienced climber, at least not before he'd met the zorua. But this climb would become far more difficult that any he'd had before, since Vanilla would be forced to drag her stretcher behind him. After each step, he'd have to secure himself in such a way that allowed him to pull Chocola up behind him.

And after all of that was done, there was still the long trek home.


	43. Homecoming

The autumn rains were in full swing. Reiga liked the calming atmosphere, dispite the fact that her boss was still in the kitchen. Thinking about it, the lucario couldn't seem to rememer the last time he seemed to relax. Reiga had just finished washing some plates when Zaho suddenly shot up from his seat, head tilted in alert.

"Someone's here…" the zoroark declared.

One of these days, she was going to have to ask him how he did that. For now, she simply focused in on the intruder's aura, only to discover that it was someone familiar.

"Well, Reiga? Anyone we know?"

"Something's wrong…" the lucario observed, barely audible. "Chocola?!"

Before she'd even finished her sentence, Zaho had already started for the door.

* * *

He'd made it. He'd finally made it. Vanilla could see that someone was still awake inside, so it wasn't too late. Ever since his friend had entered her current state, he'd lost all track of time. Concentrating on bringing her here, the eevee couldn't recall the last time he'd slept, or even eaten.

As he reached the front step, Vanilla attempted to call out, but no-one seemed to respond. Was it the rain? No, it had something to do with why he couldn't hear his own voice. His mouth was so dry he could barely make a sound. He was about to tilt his head up and let the rain do its work when the door opened up.

Expecting Reiga, Vanilla found himself a little disappointed that she wasn't the one to open the door. Instead, he found himself staring up at a Zoroark. His mind still a little rattled, the eevee couldn't discern what that meant, but it was probably a good thing, right?

The zoroak's glaring eyes darted away from him and onto the form laying atop the makeshift stretcher, where they widened in surprise. "Chocola!" He shouted, kneeling by her side in an instant.

Slowly, Vanilla faced the taller fox. There were so many things he wanted to say, but all that he managed was, "Help…"

With a swift swipe, his daughter was free of the vines and tucked away in his arms. Turning to the eevee, he let his anger get the best of him. "What in all of the Human hells have you done?" he yelled before heading inside out of the rain.

Reiga had been standing in the doorway, observing. It was impossible to mistake what had happened to the zorua. "No. It's far too soon…"

"You were right…" Zaho had been forced to admit. "Reiga, fetch the salts." He asked hastily as he pushed passed her.

Hesitating for only a moment, she followed her orders, even if it wasn't likely to do any good.

Vanilla found himself sitting there in the rain, alone. The door still stood open, so he wiggled out of his partially destroyed harness and dragged himself inside.

He didn't even bother shaking himself dry, he was so drained. The two adults seemed to be moving in a blur, moving throughout the house and consulting a few manuscripts as they did so.

Vanilla found himself ignoring them once he laid eyes on Chocola, laying rather peacefully on the couch, all things considered. Her eyes still a beacon of energy, with no evidence of a thought behind them. He almost couldn't bring himself to look into them, yet he couldn't seem to pull himself away either. He found himself drawing closer to the vixen, whom, despite the adults' best efforts, was still unresponsive.

Upon reaching the couch, he reached out to Chocola. It was a small comfort, knowing that she was finally in the care of others, but what else could he do? Still cold, wet, and weary, the results of the last few days weighed upon him, and without warning, Vanilla succumbed to his own fatigue.


	44. Apologies

The first thing Vanilla felt was the sun on his face. It's penetrating light was both delightful and warm. The gentle movement of his bed, mixed with the clear, refreshing air, the eevee felt the need to stretch.

When he realized that he couldn't fully stretch, he was startled fully awake. "Wha-!?" Quickly, he tried to remember what it was he was supposed to be doing. "Chocola!"

"Shhh," replied a familiar voice. "Take it easy, Vanilla. It's alright."

"Reiga?" Vanilla asked, a little dumbfounded. The last thing he remembered was trudging through the rain, trying to get Chocola home. Now he was talking to the guardian that lived at her house? That must mean that he accomplished his mission, at the very least. But it didn't exactly explain why he was bandaged up while sitting in the back of a moving cart. "Where are we? Where's Chocola."

Having no intention of stopping the cart, Reiga just looked back to make sure that her passenger wasn't doing anything rash. He wasn't pulling at his bandages, so she had one thing less to worry about. "Chocola is being cared for by her father, Zaho. Before we discuss things further, such as where we are, or where are we heading, I feel that apologies are in order."

Vanilla wasn't sure what to say, he vaguely remembered someone being mad at him, but he wasn't entirely sure why. Had he done something wrong in bringing Chocola home? "I'm-" The lucario cut him off.

"Hold that thought, I didn't mean for _you_ to apologize." Reiga sighed. "I'd spent all day trying to think about what to say when you woke up, and now that you're actually awake, I can't think about what I want to say…"

The eevee held his tongue.

"When you came back with Chocola in that state, Zaho may have been a little harsh. Worse than that, was the way we ignored you in the moments immediately following. We were so concerned with Chocola's condition, that we failed to notice your own. For that," Reiga stopped the cart and turned to Vanilla. "I-, We both owe you an apology. If we had our heads together, we would have realized our error in tending to the Chocola's condition first, as her's were the lesser of your twos' injuries."

He felt as though a weight had been lifted off of his chest. "So does that mean that she's going to be okay?" Vanilla asked, his voice filled with hope.

Reiga bowed slightly before resuming her cart-pulling, her demeanor remained unchanged. "Unfortunately, that remains to be seen. That's partly why we are on the road, to see if something can be done…" Vanilla's silence was all that she needed to know. "But, I assure you, bringing her home was the best course of action. You might even be able to help, provided you tell me everything that happened since you left with Chocola the other day. If anything unusual happened, especially anything regarding an odd-looking stone, it may help us in keeping Chocola safe."

For some reason, Vanilla's mind jumped to the stone hanging around his neck before he realized that the lucario was probably talking about the weird stone pillar that seemed to be the cause of his current troubles. "Why would that stone do something like that to her?"

"Chocola's family suffers from a curse, of sorts. I'll explain it in a bit, but since it sounds like you know exactly what I'm talking about, I'd like you to tell me everything you know about it. No detail is too small if it has a chance at helping her."

Thinking about where to start, Vanilla figured he may just as well start at the beginning. "It's a long story…" he admitted.

"Then it's a good thing you need your rest, then. We've got plenty of time until we arrive at our destination."


	45. The Library

"…and that's about the last thing I remember." Vanilla said as his tale wound down to its end.

Reiga was silent for a moment while she processed his story. "An interesting tale to say the least." She admitted. "Though I must say I am surprised that you were able to pull off a mega-evolution."

Vanilla had originally planned on omitting that portion of his battle with Absolution, but it suddenly dawned on him that the Lucario was likely one of the few pokemon he could trust with the information. "So that's what that was called? A mega-evolution?"

"Yes. Though uncommon in the human world, a temporary power increase can be accomplished if a relationship between a pokemon and their trainer is strong enough. Granted, I've never heard of it being done without a trainer's influence." Reiga acknowledged. "You two have grown quite close."

Trying to ignore the heat emanating from his cheeks, Vanilla pressed on. "What about the stone? Was it anything like you thought it would be? Can we use that information to help Chocola?"

"Perhaps. While I don't know if your mystery stone and the one that's been described to me are the same, by your description, they do sound very similar."

"What are they?" the eevee inquired. "What do they have to do with her 'Family Curse'?

"Zaho called them Dimensional Pillars. The how's and what's of their makeup remains unknown for the most part, but what I _do_ know is that something like this has happened before, to Chocola's mother, Zeri." Reiga paused. "Has she told you anything about her mother?"

"No. Not really." Vanilla admitted.

"Hmm…" the lucario thought to herself for a moment. "I see."

"See? About what?"

"I don't want to alarm you, but you should know that when Zeri came into contact with her Pillar, it eventually led to her death." Reiga stated. There a great degree of sadness in her voice, and maybe a tiny amount of regret.

As concerned as he was about his friend, he couldn't ignore the emotions coursing through the pokemon in front of him. "Miss Reiga, what's wrong."

"N-nothing. Nothing you need to worry about, little one." Reiga said as she gave him a reassuring smile. The eevee didn't look convinced. In truth, she did feel responsible for Zeri's death. At least partially. Had she never fell into Exile, Zeri may have survived. Sure it was likely a coincidence, but the timing between her arrival and the zoroark's unfortunate end were too close to not have some influence with each other. "Rest assured, Vanilla. We will do everything we can to help Chocola.

That seemed to settle him down a bit. "Miss Reiga, may I ask you a question?"

"Certainly."

"I've been wondering this for a while now, but how did you manage to get involved in all of this?"

Reiga mentally slapped herself for forgetting how perceptive the little eevee was. "Well, after I came to Exile, I had little to do but wander around. Zaho was the one that approached me, asking all sorts of questions. I did my best to answer, but it was only later that I learned about the reason for his visit. He thought that my being here might have had something to do what had happened with his poor Zeri. It didn't, to my knowledge, but I felt that it was my duty to help Zaho in any case." She answered, being careful to leave out that she now believed otherwise, that her being here might actually have had a direct influence on those events, whether she liked it or not. "And after hearing how he was left to care for a kit all by himself? Let's just say that I was happy to have had something to do with the inordinate amount of free time I found myself with. I've been with them ever since."

Satisfied, at least for the moment, with Reiga's answers. Vanilla began tugging on his bandages unconsciously. Noticing this, the lucario stopped the cart.

"How are you holding up?" She asked.

"Um, okay I suppose." He stated before holding up his wrapped foreleg, "Maybe a little itchy is all."

Reiga took his paw and started carefully unwrapping the bandage. "Let's get a good look at you then."

"I didn't think I sprained it that badly…"

The lucario was shocked for a moment. Did he really not know? "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Vanilla, but this was no sprain. According to the chansey we brought you to, you managed to break your foreleg at some point. By your account, it was likely during that fall."

Vanilla visibly winced, but Reiga had been ready for it, gripping his leg firmly enough to prevent movement. There was no sense in letting the eevee re-injure himself.

"Just be thankful you aren't human." Reiga teased. "A tiny fracture like this would take nearly half a season to heal! Luckily for you, we were still able to bring you to a healing-capable pokemon before too long, so all you need now is a few more days of rest." The lucario finished with a smile, doing her best to ignore the images that were currently intruding upon her mind. It would be impossible to miss the crimson trail the eevee had left as he crossed the living room that fateful night. She'd need to find time to scrub that down before he, or Chocola, could return to the house. "There we go, all done."

Staring at the little bit of paw that stuck out from the bandage, Vanilla could hardly believe that he'd broken anything. "I suppose that means I should thank you then, miss Reiga!"

Satisfied that her work was done for the moment, Reiga returned to her position at the head of the cart. "Just be sure to stay off of it for a while. Doctor's orders."

"Yes ma'am." Vanilla acknowledged. "Oh, and when we get back, can you introduce me to the chansey that healed me? I want to thank her as well!"

"That can be arranged."Reiga noted.

* * *

The rest of the trip was completed in near silence, the two pokemon left alone with their thoughts. Thankfully, the quiet only lasted until later that afternoon.

"Looks like we're just about there." Reiga said as she pointed out the destination ahead.

"A house?" the eevee questioned, his head tilted. This whole trip seemed a little extravagant for their destination to seem so, well, ordinary.

"That, little one, is no mere house." Reiga laughed. "That is the Alm Du Athenaeum."

Vanilla had heard that term before. It was a project that the Grass-type Chair, Leyf the leafeon, was rather fond of, and was often campaigning in order to obtain extra funding for; The ancient building in front of them was home to Exile's one, and only, library.


	46. Firefox Family

As the library grew larger with the decreasing distance, Vanilla could tell that, at least from the outside, the building was more of a large shack than a place to store old books. That wasn't the only thing he was able to see, either.

"Is that Clementine? What's he doing all the way out here?" Vanilla asked after he spotted the vulpix. "I guess Chocola was right, he really does get around."

Reiga winced. What _had_ that zorua been teaching him? "I recommend not repeating anything Chocola may have said about Clementine while we're here."

"Why not?"

"Because she likes to say things that have double meanings and as such using those sayings can lead to confusion. That, and I'm fairly certain that Clementine is actually related to the pokemon that run the Athenaeum." The lucario replied, doing her best to skirt the real issue with what he had said.

"Oh." Vanilla acknowledged. He wasn't sure what Clementine's visiting of relatives had to do with anything, but he would be on his best behavior if it meant meeting new pokemon. "Okay!"

Breathing a sigh of relief, Reiga pulled the cart near the building. If they ever got through this ordeal, she was really going to have to sit Chocola down for a face-to-face chat.

Though still wondering why the orange fox was in the area, Vanilla wasted no time in shouting out to his acquaintance. "Clementine! It's been a while!"

"Oh? Vanilla? Then that must mean that my dear Chocola is near, yes?" Clementine asked inquisitively as he skirted closer to the cart.

The eevee's ears drooped at that, but Reiga stepped in before it could go any further. "I'm afraid she's staying with Zaho for the time being, Clementine."

"I suppose I will just have to bear with the sorrow of her missed presence if it means that she can be happy in the company of her doting father." Clementine stated with a dramatic flair. "Although, today has not been a total loss, Miss Reiga, if it means I can bask in your beauty…" Clementine knew better than to use his routine against the fair lucario, but he couldn't help himself.

Ignoring the little vulpix's approach, Reiga continued. "We're here to see the the librarians, are they busy?"

"I'm afraid only Pumpkin is available at the moment, dear Reiga. Shall I escort you inside?"

"That'll be great, Clementine, thanks." Reiga said before turning to her passenger and catching him before he could hop out of the cart.

"Reiga!?" Vanilla said, a little shocked at suddenly being suspended in the air.

The lucario just raised an eyebrow. "What did we say about taking it easy, little one. Your leg still needs time to heal."

"Oh, right." The eevee replied sheepishly. "I can still walk, though. Right?"

"Afraid not, Vanilla." Reiga said before pulling him into a more comfortable position, being careful to avoid impaling the fox on her chest spike. "You'll just have to bear with it until tomorrow." She finished before carrying him inside.

Once they had entered, Vanilla realized that the outside of the building was nothing like the interior. Shelves took up almost every available inch of floorspace in, what seemed to be to him, an almost haphazard fashion. Row upon row of scrolls, tablets, and simply-bound books filled the shelves. There were even boards stretching between the various levels of the bookcases, acting as makeshift bridges, ramps, and additional storage space for the various documents that hadn't found a space on the shelves proper.

Even with all of the impromptu shelving, every spare length of flooring that wasn't being used as a thoroughfare had its own towering stack of books to support. The only connection he could make with a place that called itself a library was the smell. The old musty smell was to be had wherever a collection of papery-documents were amassed, and a few of the Council offices had acquired the scent all on their own.

"Pumpkin?" Their guide asked of someone unseen as he rounded a corner.

"What do you want, Clementine? I'm busy."

"Dear cousin, I only wanted to inform you that you have guests."

Reiga entered the little room with Vanilla held close. An office of sorts came into view, lit almost entirely by candlelight, it suffered from the same level of disorder as the rest of the building.

"I'm Reiga, and this is Vanilla." The lucario said as an introduction. "Zaho sent us."

"Oh?" Replied the vixen as she readjusted her almost comically large spectacles so that they sat high up on her tiny nose. "We haven't heard from Zaho in ages. What can we help him, or you, rather, with?"

Thinking about it for a moment, Reiga moved to one of the cushions that sat opposite of the little table that served as Pumpkin's desk. "For starters, I'd like to bring Vanilla up to speed with Exile's origin and Tutaxeclan's work. I'd do it myself, but time is becoming an issue. While you're doing that, I have a list of things that Zaho wants me to go over." She stated before handing the fennekin a wooden tablet from her bag. "Will these work?"

"Let's see. Yep, got that one. Those two are pretty dull, so they're probably still in the archive. Oh-? This one's still checked out to Councilmon Leyf, sorry. The last one's kind of unique, though. I can't let it out of the library."

"I guess I'll take what I can get. We'll have to get a hold of Mister Leyf at some point, but is there any way we can copy what we need from that last one?" Reiga asked.

"Well…" Pumpkin started as she thought about it. "I suppose that's possible. Hey, Honey Crisp!" She called out.

Another fennekin poked her head into the office. "Yeah, sis?"

Passing the list off to her sibling, Pumpkin delegated her orders. "Take Miss Reiga to pick up these three. She'll need some blank slates and a charcoal to copy down the stuff from the last item, though."

"Wait, I don't know where Chi's _Guide to All Things Energy_ is located." the younger sibling stated as she mentally tallied the list.

Pumpkin sighed before delivering a complex set of coordinates composed of letters, numbers, and what Vanilla was certain was some form of unpronounceable geometry.

Whatever she said seemed to have worked, because Honey Crisp's eyes lit up with recognition. "Oh, right. Got it. Anything else?"

"Just stay where Reiga can get a hold of you while she works." Pumpkin stated simply. "Oh, and find Citrus. I'm sure our guests would like something to drink."

"Yes ma'am!" the little fennekin saluted before leading Reiga off into the depths of the scholarly labyrinth.

That order of business out of the way, Pumpkin got up and retrieved a scroll from the shelf on the nearest wall.

"You're pretty lucky, Vanilla." Clementine whispered as he gestured towards his cousin's scroll. "There aren't many lucky enough to learn of Exile's origin from Pumpkin herself."

"Cousin, you do realize that I can still hear you, right?" the vixen stated flatly as she unfurled the parchment. "He's not wrong, though. Exile's origin is considered more myth than fact these days. But once we get through my research, you'll see the truth for yourself…"


	47. Origins of Exile

"Before we get started," Pumpkin began, "How much do you know about how Exile was created?"

Of course he'd heard of the old stories. Everyone had. "Well. Back when Exile was part of the human world, a powerful pokemon called Giratina saw fit to separate Exile from the rest of the world. He erected the barrier that keeps everyone out."

"Well, I suppose that means that you paid attention to your bed-time stories…" the vixen observed as she readjusted her glasses. "But you're still mostly wrong!"

"What?! How?" Vanilla retorted, seeing as how he got most of the details right.

Pumpkin laughed a bit before continuing. "Don't take it the wrong way, but it's the old tales that are wrong, not just your recollection of them. Well, most of them anyway. Giratina was the pokemon responsible for making Exile what it is today, but the hows and whys aren't so blase, or even benevolent, as they appear in some renditions." Unrolling the scroll revealed that it wasn't a single piece of parchment, but that other documents appeared to be tucked away within. The fennekin continued her tale as the scroll continued to unfurl. "I've been looking through all of the oldest historical records, partially at the behest of Zaho, but also to sate my own curiosity. Do you know what I found?"

Before Vanilla could reply that there was no way he could possibly have divined her discovery, he was relieved of the duty. Abruptly.

"I found out the true reason that Giratina split our world from the real world!" Pumpkin continued excitedly. "A few years ago there was an earthquake similar to the one we had recently. And unlike here, where we spent most of the next few days re-shelving books, the pokemon near Loamwood found a stone foundation that had been uncovered by a small rock slide. Stonework that still had tool-marks, as if it was made by humans! Of course, it's been centuries since any humans have been to exile, but according to a tablet piece found at the ruin, at least one of them was stuck on the island when Giratina made his move."

The next item revealed by the scroll was a charcoal rubbing of the tablet in question. "Of course, we're still having trouble reading human language, they don't exactly write the same way most pokemon would, but it looks like the tablet was a record of the event. From what we can tell directly, There were two other pokemon locked in combat that was so bad that the world itself was taking collateral damage. The record doesn't say exactly what the damage was, but it does say that it angered Giratina. There's also some theories written down about the makeup of the barrier, but I believe that only one of them is remotely correct."

Vanilla found himself struggling to follow along. Had Clementine been teasing him about being lucky earlier? There was no way he would have guessed a pokemon could be so enthusiastic about a subject.

Luckily, an interruption in the form of a braixen appeared. His tray was filled with cups of sweet-smelling tea, and a simple cake that had been cut into thirds, which he placed on their own individual plates. After each of the seated foxes had their snacks placed in front of them, Vanilla realized how hungry he was. How long had it been since he last ate?

His hunger, however, did not supersede his manners. "Thank you, um, Citrus was it?"

Instead of answering, the braixen simply made a curt bow before leaving the room.

For some reason, Citrus's actions seemed a tiny bit out of place, but Pumpkin didn't give him time to dwell on it. Wasting no time, she jumping right back into her explanation, "Anyway, Exile's barrier isn't really a barrier at all. There's evidence that Giratina can manipulate his own dimension, the mirror world. I believe that Exile exists in a state similar to that. Which is to say, that Exile exists within its own dimension!"

"But wait," Vanilla interrupted. "Then what about Riega? If there is no barrier, and we are living in another existence entirely, then how did she end up here?"

"Ah! That's just it, nobody knows! Even so, we can see the direct effects." The next item was a crude painting of a very familiar looking stone pillar. "These are called Dimensional Pillars. They're made of some sort of weird stone that isn't affected a stone pokemon's attacks and cannot be moved. If you're working with Zaho, you'll run into one of these eventually, I'm sure. He's obsessed with the things. Anyway, soon after Reiga arrived, one of the last remaining pillars, specifically the one near Jocundale, is said to have vanished. Around the same time, Zaho's wife vanished too! While I'll admit that my correlation does not equal causation, I do believe that these events are connected in some way."

The more Vanilla thought about it, the more it made sense. At least it would explain Reiga's actions in a bit more clarity. For starters anyway, it would explain why she feels responsible for Chocola's care.

"But wait, let me get this straight. Two powerful pokemon were fighting and Giratina stopped them."

"Correct."

"And to do so, he built a tiny dimension."

"Yes. Most likely using the Dimensional Pillars as some sort of anchor points."

"Then where are the two pokemon he stopped?"

"That, Vanilla, is an excellent question…" Pumpkin said with a smile. "But before I can tell you the answer to that, I need Tutaxeclan's Anthology." Turning back towards her bookshelf, she suddenly found that the volume in question was missing. "Shoot, one of the others must have grabbed it. Citrus!" She shouted for the nearby braixen.

Poking his head inside, Pumpkin just pointed to the hole where the Anthology was supposed to be sitting.

Citrus wordlessly shrugged his ignorance as to the book's location.

"Argh! Fine. You two wait a moment. I have to hunt down a book…" Pumpkin informed the two before she stormed off into the annals of the library.


	48. Catching up with Clementine

Left alone with the vulpix, Vanilla found the silence to be a bit awkward. "Um, so Clementine, how have you been? The last time I saw you we were on the Everpeak."

"I've been well, I suppose. Nothing compared to the adventure you've been through, I hear. Provided the rumors are true, that is." Clementine raised an eyebrow. "I can't imagine what it must be like for you to be separated after going through all of that."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, for starters, you two were practically acting as each other's shadows earlier. I mean, I always knew that Chocola had a thing for danger, but to traipse around the Capital with the son of a then-former council member to out coup a coup? That's a level of dedication that goes a little beyond mere friendship, my friend." The vulpix suggested while moving his eyebrows up and down. "So, the only reason I can think of as to why she isn't here, now, with you, is that you're going through a bit of a rough patch."

"No! You've got it all wrong!" Vanilla attempted to deny. "It's not like that…" 'Right?' he thought to himself.

Clementine smirked. "Well as far as Chocola is concerned, you're already delving far into unmarked territory, and for you especially, I'd say that goes double. But, as a fellow gentlefox, I'll give you any tips and pointers you could want in dealing with the fairest zorua. All you have to do is ask."

"I-I'll keep that in mind." The eevee said as he tried to calm down his blush. Eager to change the topic of conversation, Vanilla continued. "S-so, um, how did Pumpkin get the job of running this place instead of that braixen?

"What? Why would Citrus be running the library? Pumpkin is the oldest sibling." Clementine stated.

"Oh, I just thought that, because he had evolved, he was older. It's usually the eldest that gets to evolve first."

"Ah, yeah. I can see why you'd think that. Normally that'd be the case, but Pumpkin decided to give Citrus her chance to evolve."

"They had a Fire Stone?"

"Nope." Clementine stated as he stared at his now-empty cup. "Fire Evolution Ceremony held in Convocity. Pumpkin was pretty excited for it, but that was before Citrus started getting sick. Long story short, evolution was the only way to help him, and she ended up giving her spot to her brother."

"Ah, because evolution makes a pokemon stronger." Vanilla surmised

"Yeah. Citrus hasn't managed to speak a single word since then, but he still tries to help out as best he can." The vulpix admitted. "So, while their parents are away, I like to make the trip out her and help lend a paw."

That kind of came as a surprise to Vanilla. If Chocola was to be believed, the vulpix was incapable of a selfless act.

"What's so funny?" Clementine said, feeling a little insulted after he noticed the smile spread across Vanilla's face.

"Oh, sorry. It's just that, if you spent more time doing things like this, I think Chocola would have a better opinion of you."

The vulpix didn't quite know how to respond to that. But before he could think of a retort, Pumpkin returned with an ancient tome balanced along her back.


	49. Xatu's Prophecy

"Sorry about the wait. This little beauty seems to have found its way into the archive…" Pumpkin said as she glared towards the door at no pokemon in particular. Gently dropping the book onto the table, a cloud of dust puffed into existence before dispersing. Clearing her throat, the vixen continued. "I present to you Tutaxeclan's Anthology!"

"Who was this Tutaxeclan fellow, and how are they involved with the formation of Exile?" Vanilla asked. He was fairly certain that the name was quite odd, even for pokemon standards. "Was that one of the two pokemon who had been fighting fighting?"

"Not quite. But that doesn't mean that Tutaxeclan wasn't a bit of a mystery, to be honest." The fennekin answered. "We know that he was a Xatu, and that he was alive sometime before Exile came to be. These," Pumpkin gestured to the old pages in front of her, "are a collection of his known prophecies."

Vanilla glanced at the open book and noticed something that didn't quite add up. "Wait, you said he lived before Exile existed, but this is written in pokescratch. That kind of writing wasn't devised until after the council was formed."

Pokescratch was a form of writing that involved glyphs that could be written and read by the majority of pokemon species on Exile. The First Council had decided that a common means of communication was necessary in order to bring a sense of fellowship to the various pokemon types. There were still a few species that were unable to write the language down on their own, but almost every pokemon on Exile could read it.

"Well, duh. Back in the Xatu's day these would have been passed on verbally. We're pretty sure that we've managed to gather most of them here, but there's always the chance that some of them have been lost to time. And before you ask if they are accurate or not, I'll let you be the judge of that." Shuffling through the pages, Pumpkin singled out a single set of prophecies. "I believe that Reiga wants you to know about this one in particular."

After she rotated the volume, Vanilla began reading the passage aloud.

"Legends to clash, a world, to gash.

War has cost, an island, now lost.

Humans have left, a peace, too bereft.

Elements in stone, a pact, not alone.

Peace is built, an era, till tilt.

Peace is lost, due ambition, small cost.

Fox to roam, a place, no home.

Power to use, a mercy, to fuse.

Sky to tear, a life, does wear…"

"Now, it's sort of vague, these kind of things generally are. But as you can see, the first few lines can easily be seen as the formation of Exile, at least from an outsider's perspective. The forth and fifth lines talk about the formation of the council and the era of peace that they bring." Pumpkin continued, "Line six is where it gets interesting. Now I'm no meowth, but I'd be willing to bet that we've recently witnessed line seven with the absol's coup!"

Vanilla was decidedly less excited. It was easy to see that the next line wasn't as vague as the rest. It was referring to him. The odd look he was getting from Clementine wasn't helping.

Pumpkin, however, couldn't have known that. "There's been some speculation that the line about the fox is an obvious reference to a member of the council families, but I'm not so sure that that's the case. I mean, why wouldn't he mention them specifically? Sure he could also be talking about anyone in this room at the moment, and Reiga actually disagrees with me here, but for all she knows, _she_ could be the fox in the prediction! Though I don't know what power the prophecy could be referring to. A new type of attack, maybe?"

"What about the last part?" Vanilla asked, eager to move on so that he could ask Reiga some questions of his own.

"We don't know. It may have something to do with the same pokemon involved in Exiles creation, since it nearly describes a similar event in the first line. The life in question, and what exactly Tutaxeclan means when he says 'does wear' is up for interpretation. He could even be referring to the fox in previous passage. Without additional lines, we start losing context."

Flipping the page, Vanilla found that the poem's cadence had changed. A different prophecy. "Wait, that's it? It doesn't say what happens after that?"

"Nope. Either it got lost over time, or the xatu made it after Exile was formed. Which is to say, that it's possible that there may be more to this prophecy after this, we just might not have access to it."

Pieces seemed to be falling into place, and the more he thought about it, the more Vanilla didn't like where the puzzle was heading.

"So what do you think? Don't these prophecies spark your imagination?" Pumpkin asked excitedly. Most pokemon weren't interested in her work, and she was liking the thought of a captive audience.

Then it hit him. Vanilla realized the most important piece of the puzzle so far. The xatu wasn't the only one with a prediction of the future. "I've got to go! Where's Reiga?" He said as he jumped to his three good feet.

"Woah, calm down there, Vanilla. What's the matter?" Clementine asked at the eevee's sudden urgency.

All the vulpix got in return was a look of grave concern before eevee headed for the door. "I have to talk to Reiga!"

"What why?!" Pumpkin asked, not fully understanding what the commotion was about.

"I think I know what the last line was talking about…" was all Vanilla managed before he hobbled out of the room.


	50. Hurry up and Wait

The archive was silent save for the sound of charcoal being drawn across a wooden slat. Thinking she was making excellent progress on copying a segment dealing with a specific form of meditation, the lucario was interrupted when she heard her name echo through the halls. "Reiga!? Reiga where are you?"

Being propped up in a corner with her selected book was hardly a place to have the discussion she was expecting, so Reiga finished the sentence she was on before answering. "I'll be there in a moment, Vanilla."

The eevee didn't wait. Following the sound of her voice, Vanilla found where Reiga had been hiding.

"Ah, so I take it you've been brought up to speed?" she asked of him.

"I don't know. With all the things I _haven't_ been told I _can't_ know…" Vanilla looked like he wanted to say more, but instead only found himself shuffling his feet on the floor.

"What's on your mind, Little One?"

"I-is there somewhere we can talk in private?" was all he asked.

Reiga simply checked the nearest halls and, once verifying that they were empty, returned to the archive entrance to close the door. Setting her book aside, she sat down in front of the eevee. "We should be alone now, Vanilla."

"You knew about all of this the whole time? Why didn't you tell me!?" Tears began welling up under his eyes as he continued. "I trusted you, and now I learn that, that… I don't even know what that stuff was about! What about Chocola! D-did she-"

"Chocola was unaware." Reiga cut him off. "Before we assess your feelings, there is still more that you should know…"

He wasn't sure she could trust what she said, having been kept in the dark for so long, but now? "I'm listening…" was all that he could say, his indignation clearly audible.

"Despite what Pumpkin may have told you, we _do_ know the details of Exile's creation." Now she had his attention. "The two warring pokémon were called Dialga and Palkia. Each a legend in their own right, they controlled the ability to manipulate time and space, respectively. We suspect that their powers interfered with each other often enough to drive the two to combat, but other than that, the details are quite scarce. We do, however, know what Giratina did to them." Vanilla raised an eyebrow betraying his curiosity, and Reiga continued "After defeating the two, he broke them apart and sealed their energy inside of the Dimensional Pillars."

"But, how does that affect what happened to Chocola…?"

"Well, after contacting the stone, she became a vessel. Based on what Zaho's discoveries, we believe that she is now in possession of a piece of Dialga's soul."

"Can we remove it?" Vanilla asked, trying his best not to get his hopes up.

"Yes, it will eventually remove itself, but without the proper training," Reiga paused for a moment, "Chocola may not be able to recover."

"No! That can't be true!"

"I'm afraid it is, Little One. We know this because the same thing happened to her mother." Reiga finished solemnly.

Vanilla was starting to connect the dots. "Her family's curse…"

"Precisely. For reasons unknown to us, the Pillars call out to her family members, though we believe it used to occur at some sort of set interval. Before my arrival, the time between soul transfers allowed for the vessels to nearly lead a full life. In doing so, they were able to train themselves to handle the soul pieces safely."

"But since you've arrived?"

Reiga sighed. "Somehow, my coming to Exile has sped up the process. We're not entirely sure how. Maybe it was caused by a weakness appearing in the dimensional barrier, no matter how brief. Or, it is because there are so few pillars left, and it is nearly time for Palkia and Dialga to awaken. We do not know. All we do know is that when Zeri returned the soul to its proper resting place, her own soul went with it."

This news hit Vanilla particularly hard. He felt as though his own heart was being ripped from his chest and he hated himself for it. "Is there nothing we can do? Please, Reiga! We can't let Chocola die!"

"And we are doing all that we can. That is why we chose to reveal all of this to you, now." Riega answered.

"But why me?"

"Before I continue, I'd like to apologize on Zaho's behalf once more. We did use you. We did it because Zaho believed that we could use you instead of his daughter for a vessel. It was selfish and wrong and there's nothing we can do to make up for that." Reiga stated. Vanilla had never thought the lucario could look more defeated than she did right now. "But, if what you told us was true, then there just might be a chance we can still save her, Vanilla."

So he had been right. They _had_ used him. But if it was to save Chocola, he'd do it all over again. "Please, I'll do anything!"

Reiga looked at the eevee. His eagerness to help his friend, despite everything they'd intended to do to him, very nearly broke her heart. Despite her suppressing the urge to give the fox a comforting hug, she still had a job to do. "It will be dangerous."

"That doesn't matter!"

"There's a very real chance that you will die…" Reiga declared, in all seriousness. "That you may share in Chocola's fate…"

"I. Don't. Care." Vanilla declared, resolute.

"As you wish." Reiga said as she rose to her feet. "Your training begins now."


	51. Aura

"So, how exactly am I supposed to train if I'm still injured?" Vanilla asked as he gestured toward his bandaged paw.

"You will be fine. Unlike physical training, we're not here to gather strength. Close your eyes for a moment so I can get everything ready." Reiga instructed.

Vanilla was completely lost as to what he was supposed to accomplish here, but it wasn't as though he had anything else to do at the moment. Closing his eyes, he signaled the lucario that he had complied. With the sounds of exertion she was making soon after, he could only imagine what she was doing.

"You may open your eyes now, Vanilla."

Doing as he was instructed, Vanilla could hardly believe what he saw. "What did you do? Nothing's changed." He asked, tilting his head in confusion.

"Au contraire, Little One. You just cannot see them. Yet."

"Yet? See what?"

To answer his question, Reiga held her palms out in front of her. Concentrating, Vanilla could see the energy swirl and condense until she held a small orb of light in her left paw.

"An Aura Sphere?"

"Close." Reiga admitted, happy to now have a baseline for the eevee's knowledge of her abilities. She held the paw with the sphere closer for Vanilla to inspect. "This is a normal Aura Sphere, as you guessed correctly."

Vanilla swore that he could feel a warm energy wafting away from the calm blue light. If he didn't know how dangerous the attack could be for normal types, he could almost say that it was comforting.

Reiga held out her empty palm towards him. "This one is far less powerful. The aura is thin, and as such, it is both relatively harmless and practically invisible. Right now, there are several surrounding you at random intervals. I want you to tell me how many there are within ten paces of where you are right now." Reiga ordered with a grin. "I suggest you mark your current location before starting."

Uncertain about what all of this was supposed to be training him for, Vanilla took a cautious step forward. He was immediately on the receiving end of what felt like a punch to the nose. "Ow!"

"That's one. They may be invisible, but they _are_ still attacks."

Still rubbing his snout, Vanilla marked the ground just in front of him with a line. Staring at the air just beyond it, he found that, even though he knew where one of the spheres was, he still couldn't see it. "How am I supposed to find these things?"

"They are made of aura. Even though they may be invisible to you, a lucario or riolu can still see them."

Skirting around the first orb, Vanilla soon felt another jolt of pain, this time through his shoulder. "Ugh! But I'm not a riolu. How am I supposed to see them!?" he asked, getting a little angry at being forced to step through a field that was filled with invisible traps.

"You're not." Reiga admitted.

"But then how-"

"This test is less about you being able to see aura, and more about learning where your own aura reaches." The lucario said simply. "Every creature, and even some plants, possess their own aura. You only need to observe how yours interacts with the aura around it."

Vanilla sat down for a moment after marking down the second orb's location. If what Reiga was saying was true, then he should be able to use his aura as a sort of sixth sense, even if he was unable to wield it as a form of attack. Taking a deep breath, Vanilla closed his eyes trying to think of a plan.

Then he realized that he'd accidentally discovered something. With his eyes closed, he could better focus on his other senses. Keeping his eyes closed, he got up and tried to reach out for an orb he already knew existed. His good paw jerked back in pain as it struck the orb, but for a split-second before he made contact, Vanilla swore that something felt different.

It was a sort of tingling sensation, very faint, almost like a static shock. The only difference was that it occurred beyond the reach of his skin, or even his fur.

Reiga looked on with a slight smile as she witnessed the enlightenment spreading across her pupil's face. The youngest riolu could, of course, complete this training blindfolded. But even a little step like this would benefit Vanilla in his task to come. She flinched in sympathy as he struck an orb with his tail.

"Remember, Vanilla, that unlike the spheres, your aura is not a solid structure. It flows around you like a thin mist. With every movement, your aura will not necessarily follow in the way you expect it." Reiga gave one final instruction as she turned to leave. "Continue until you believe you have found them all. I'll be in the archive if you need me."

And with that, Vanilla found himself alone in the field with nothing but his concentration and the Aura Spheres to keep him company.


	52. Sixth Sense

By the end of the third day, Vanilla thought that he'd been getting the hang of it, he just wasn't sure he'd be able to do anything with his newfound sense of personal space. Sure, he could sense when one of the Aura spheres was near, but when Reiga started moving them, the eevee quickly learned another lesson.

Just because he could sense them did not mean he could dodge them. At best, Vanilla found he could brace himself for the impact, but only just barely, and even that was up in the air if the orbs were moving too fast.

He'd managed to count thirteen of the moving spheres, or at least the extents of their paths. Starting on day two, Reiga had seen fit to alter the sphere's sizes, so Vanilla had had his paws full finding the last few tiny orbs when Reiga interrupted him.

"I think, I'm getting the hang of it, Reiga-" Vanilla announced just as one of the hidden orbs clipped his tail. "Well, almost getting it. What exactly is this training supposed to help with, anyway? I have a feeling I won't be dodging many of these…" he finished as he sidestepped out of the path of another.

"I should hope not. The purpose of this exercise was for you to learn the extent of your aura. To that end, I suppose you are about as ready as you'll ever be. You are not from a lucario lineage, after all." Reiga acknowledged before dismissing the field of Aura Spheres.

"Is something the matter?"

"Your training is over, Vanilla, at least for now."

Vanilla ran up to his teacher, still relishing the feeling of being able to move his recently unbandaged leg. "That must mean that you finished copying stuff down for Zaho…"

"Correct. I'll leave for Loamwood fairly soon, but I wanted to check up on you before I left."

Vanilla's head was tilted in confusion. "Wait, am I not going with you?" Not that staying at the library would be a bad thing, but ever since Clementine left for home, he found that he didn't share many interests with the rest of Pumpkin's family. "I can help, just let me-"

"I'm not leaving you here, Vanilla-" Reiga was interrupted by a purple flash of light in front of them.

/-Because I am here to take you off of her paws…\ answered the newly-arrived mewtwo telepathically.

"Mawe?" Vanilla asked, more confused than ever. He hadn't known that Reiga and the psychic pokemon in front of him her associates.

"Enough with the theatrics, Mawe." Reiga said, rolling her eyes. "We have a job to do."

"A job?" Vanilla asked, starting to hope that at least one of his questions would be answered before too many more popped up.

/Correct, young Eevee. Reiga is to return to Zaho and assist with his daughter. I am to take you to the last Dimensional Pillar.\

Mawe hovered nearer to Vanilla in order to pick him up, and the eevee pulled away, attempting to gulp his sudden anxiety down.

/Hesitant? Are you not prepared to do whatever it takes to save your friend?\

"N-no it isn't that…" Vanilla said hesitantly. "I'd do anything to help Chocola, and Reiga explained that I've got the best chance to act as a successful vessel. It's just that-"

"Ah, he senses your aura, Mawe." Reiga observed, suddenly regretting that she didn't have the chance to fully share the next lesson with the eevee. "It's all right, Vanilla. As massive as her aura is, it can't hurt you on its own. Just remember that there isn't anything really pressing down on you and you'll be fine."

'That was easy for her to say.' Vanilla thought. With his new senses, it felt as though he was practically suffocating.

Mawe, however, wasn't amused at Reiga's insinuation that her aura was particularly large. /Believe me, little one, if my close presence disturbs you, you are definitely not going to enjoy the alternative…\

"And that is?" Vanilla asked, not quite so sure.

/I'll be forced to grab you with Telekinesis. Furthermore, we'll be unable to teleport, so you'll be forced to endure the suspension for the entire trip."\

The eevee weighed his options. On one paw, he only felt as though he was being crushed. On the other, Mawe's psychic energy was literally going to be touching _every_ part of him simultaneously, aura and all. Option one it was. "T-that's okay, Miss Mawe." Vanilla stated as he volunteered himself to take a step closer to the mewtwo. "I'll go along with whatever you decide…"

Mawe simply raised an eyebrow. /A wise choice…\ Reaching down, she picked up the eevee and held him to her chest.

"Take care of him now, Mawe." Reiga said in all seriousness.

/It was never my intention to do otherwise…\ the mewtwo responded before slowly ascending into the sky.

Once the pair had risen clear of any perceptible interference, the purple flash of Mawe's teleportation lit up the ground below. Nothing but air remained in their place.

Assured that her job here was done, and that she'd seen Vanilla off. Reiga returned to her cart with a smile on her face. "It won't be long now, Reiga." She said to herself as she began pulling her cart down the path. "Just a little bit longer…"


	53. Jetlag

By the time Vanilla set foot back on solid ground, he had realized two things. One, he really, _really_ did not like teleportation, and two, despite her seemingly cold demeanor, Mawe was fairly nice.

Before he could properly register exactly what it was that the process of teleportation had done to him, Vanilla had promptly lost his lunch upon the grass. Mawe apologetically rubbed his back in a soothing matter just after.

He wasn't sure if the mewtwo was just used to being torn in all directions, but she seemed to understand the effect it was having on his constitution.

/Apologies, Vanilla. I should have warned you against bracing yourself. I haven't had to transport another in a very long time…\

The backrubs were keeping him from being mad at the mewtwo, and he recovered before long, with exception of being hungry again. "Where are we?" Vanilla asked, finally having an opportunity to take in his surroundings.

They stood upon a small hill that was covered in emerald-green grass. It overlooked sheer cliffs on all sides as waves crashed against rocks somewhere far below. Looking around, Vanilla could see that there were a great many sea stacks surrounding them, most likely terminating in the same water as their own little plateau.

Curiously missing from the picturesque scene, however, was the dimensional pillar.

In response to his questioning glance, Mawe led Vanilla to the edge of the hill and pointed toward the bottom of the largest rock formation in front of them. Peering over the ledge, he could just make out the waves as they seemed to disappear into the stones below.

That could only mean that there was some sort of cave down there, but Vanilla could not determine the depth or even the basic structure of the formation from this distance.

"How are we supposed to get down there?" Vanilla asked upon failing to see a path down to the water.

/I'll bring us down when the time is right.\

He'd been under the impression that the only reason they hadn't already approached the Dimensional Pillar was because Mawe had only just found it. "Why not now? The sooner we help Chocola, the better, right?"

/Not so fast, Young One. You are not yet fully prepared to receive the legendary pokemon's soul.\ Mawe responded with the telepathic equivalent of what was essentially matter-of-fact. /Besides, the tide is still high. We must wait until the water recedes…\

"Oh, right." Vanilla conceded. "So, what are we going to do in the meantime?"

/You should rest. Our training will begin once night falls.\

Before Vanilla could argue he suddenly realized just how tired he was. Well, tired wasn't really the word. Fatigued? Worn? Either way, the eevee found his own movements to be surprisingly sluggish.

Luckily, Mawe was able to catch him before he could tumble into the ocean. It would appear that the teleportation had not really agreed with Vanilla in the slightest. If he was to travel any further with her, he'd have to get overcome his distaste for telekinetics encroaching upon his aura.

For now, though, her charge would just have to sleep it off. ' _Although_ ,' Mawe thought to herself as a smirk spread across her face, 'I guess this means that his training can start early…


	54. Sweet Dreams

Vanilla found himself laying on on sweet-smelling grass with the sun warming his coat. He hadn't realized how much he'd missed the presence of her darker fur.

And then Mawe stepped in and ruined the illusion. "Impressive. Mere moments after you fall unconscious, and you've already constructed a little paradise for yourself." The mewtwo stated as she observed her surroundings.

The eevee, despite being so recently startled, noted that Mawe wasn't communicating through telepathy. Only then did he realize that he was in a dream. A particularly embarrassing dream if Mawe's facial expression was any indication.

Sweeping one of her arms across the imagery, Mawe cleared the dreamscape to an oddly familiar white.

"W-wait, when did I get hit with Hypnosis?" Vanilla asked while attempting to rub his eyes. For some reason, he was having trouble focusing on anything that wasn't Mawe. As he pulled his paws away, he realized that it wasn't his eyes that had made everything blurry, but rather, it was his own body that wasn't quite corporeal. "That's new…"

"Ah, I'm assuming the last time you were here, it was before you'd discovered your aura."

"But how am I able to see it now? I've never actually _observed_ my aura before."

"That doesn't matter. As long as your mind believes it exists, it exists here. You only need to consciously imagine what you want to look like if you hope to alter your appearance." Mawe answered, though she tipped her head as another thought occurred. "Did you not encounter this ability the last time you were here?"

"Oh? The meowstic said something along those lines, I suppose, but they also said that they've seen every trick and that they knew how to counter it…" Vanilla responded as he reflected on what he considered to be a weird time.

"Indeed… Did it ever occur to you that they only said that because that is what they wanted you to believe?" Mawe questioned. "As long as we are in your dream, you hold the majority of the power. Had you attempted anything, most opponents would have been hard pressed to counter anything effectively."

"Aww… Are you saying that I didn't have to trick them?"

Mawe smiled, which was not something that Vanilla expected. Or even thought possible, honestly. "The fact that you outwitted them despite the imposed handicap is a credit to your ingenuity."

"Thanks, I guess?" Vanilla stated. "Hey! What are you doing here anyway? I was having such a nice dream…"

"I am well aware…" Mawe admitted with a raised eyebrow. "But, to answer your question, I'm here to oversee your next bout of training."

"Um, what sort of training?" Vanilla asked cautiously.

Mawe smiled. "I'm glad you asked." Suddenly, floors and walls erupted around him as his would-be mentor dissolved into thin air.

Before long, Vanilla recognized that he was standing in some sort of stone hallway. "Mawe…?" he asked, only to receive no answer. Taking a cautious step forward, he was greeted with a sudden wall of flame.

His nose slightly singed, Vanilla yelped out in surprise. "Hey! What kind of training is this?"

"Don't worry, young one. This training only follows one, simple rule: Survive."

As if to punctuate her point, a giant boulder dropped down behind Vanilla and started rolling towards him.

This was going to be a long night…


	55. Master of None

Vanilla found himself panting due to exertion. He'd been thrown into one disaster situation after another with almost no time in between to catch his breathe.

Deep down, he knew that it might be possible that he didn't _need_ to breathe in the dreamworld, but he didn't necessarily want to test that out in the middle of Mawe's onslaught. She'd thrown fire, boulders, spikes, quicksand, and some sort of whirlwind at him so far, and Vanilla was starting to wonder just how many more attacks a pokemon could come up with before they could be declared officially insane.

The fact that Vanilla's solutions had consisted of rather basic constructs so far was another thing. Sure they worked, but it as probably only a matter of time before Mawe initiated a new rule that prevented him from simply summoning a defensive wall.

"I'm afraid you're going to need to do better than you have so far, Vanilla." Mawe stated as she appeared beside him.

"Okay, I get that, but why all of this?" Vanilla asked as he gestured to the ruins left by the recent winds.

"Because we don't know what is in store for you once you reach the soul inside of the crystal. So, before we simply thrust you into a truly dangerous situation, we must throw every conceivable attack at you. Speaking of which, you might want to hold your breath…" Mawe said conspiratorially as the dream-scape suddenly turned into a watery abyss.

As the eevee followed his instincts and swim to the surface, he realized that there was no surface to swim to. Panic swarmed through his head and interfered with any plan he may have had concerning the ability to not breathe.

His first thought instead was to summon a large bubble of air, only to find that it had immediately rushed passed him to the unseen surface, providing him precious little time to inhale a gasp of the air.

He tried again with an even larger bubble, only to run into the same problem. Somewhat surprisingly, this time he was airborne long enough to start falling towards the bottom. At least he had time enough to suck in a panicked breath before colliding with the bottom of the bubble as it rose, but it was obvious that this solution was a solution in name only.

If only there were some way to freeze the bubble in place long enough for Vanilla to think of a way out of…

Vanilla smacked himself on the head mentally before summoning a new bubble, and this time, literally freezing the ocean around his air pocket. Finally not having to fight for his next few breaths, he started coughing up the water he'd inadvertently swallowed, covering the frozen floor in a thin film.

"Nice." Mawe mused. "And a little bit clever, I might add, though it wasn't quite what I was expecting…" she finished before exchanging the newly-frozen dream for one consisting of more solid ground and less of a watery abyss.

"Are… You… Trying… To kill me?" Vanilla asked as his lungs took the opportunity to enjoy fresh air again.

"Well, for the most part. You won't die, exactly, but the feelings of panic and fear, just before you meet your end, will be _very_ real."

Vanilla took one last full breath before processing the mewtwo's statement. It was probably a safe bet that the mewtwo wasn't intent on stopping anytime soon, not that he could tell time here anyway. But what could he do? She was only doing this to help him help Chocola, and without the zorua by his side, there wasn't much he could do to stop the torment. "Okay…" he relented, "but can we please avoid any more drowning?"

"I wasn't planning on it. But, it is obvious to me that, while your last solution was passable, I don't believe you've fully grasped what you are capable of here…"

"What do you mean?"

"Simply telling you won't suffice, I'm afraid." Mawe stated flatly. "I've been forced to escalate…"

Before Vanilla could ask what she meant by that, he felt, rather than saw, what her next plan of attack was. Heat poured down from the massive, fiery object that appeared to be swelling in size as it tore through the atmosphere he hadn't realized was there. Even as he attempted to shield his eyes, he could see that the object was moving closer, filling more of his view with every passing moment. "Mawe!?"

"I'm sorry Vanilla, but you won't be able to figure out a clever plan to get out of this one. That meteor has about two minutes before it crushes this whole area. And, if you somehow manage to escape even that, the pressure wave will hit you following the impact. This is the end, Young One…"

Sitting there a bit dumbstruck, Vanilla found himself at a loss for words. Even if he refused to believe it was possible before, he was certain the mewtwo was crazy now. Even now, with the threat drawing nearer, Mawe had simply sat down to watch as they were both obliterated. She was beyond convincing that this was a bad idea now.

No. Vanilla still had a few minutes, right? Looking up, he was forced to squint as he tried to think of a plan. The first thought that came to mind as tears formed in his eyes was that he'd never thought he'd miss that water he'd almost drowned in. He'd berate himself on not helping the situation, but he didn't have time for that. He was going to have to throw everything he had at this thing.

All he had to do was keep the meteoric mass from falling, right? Vanilla stuck with what worked earlier and summoned a structure to impede the object's progress. Instead of using a wall similar to the one he used to stop the boulder from rolling over him, this time he summoned as many dense pillars as he could. On his command, each and every one of the pillars rocketed up to meet the falling rock head-on. There were so many towers that they effectively shielded him from most of the heat.

Closer and closer the meteor and the towers appeared as they closed the distance. Finally, they struck each other, causing an almost infinite number of brief explosions surrounding each of the tower's impact zones. And for a brief moment, it appeared as though his plan had worked.

Just as hope rose in Vanilla's chest, the first pillar shattered. Then the next, and soon the pillars contributed to a cascade of failures as the meteor bore down its full weight upon them. He'd barely managed to slow it down. In fact, his contribution had been less than negligible, as not only had the flaming mass barely noticing the hiccup but now the shattered remains of his solution were now adding to the calamity as they fell.

The mewtwo only watched on, almost uninterested. "Mawe! Please?!" Vanilla pleaded.

"No. If you want to save your friend, you must stop this yourself. If you can't then you will, both of you, die." Was all she said.

Vanilla looked up in desperation. If he had somehow managed to even slow it down, buy himself some more time, then maybe he could have had time to figure out a solution.

Tears flowed freely now. He'd failed, and in doing so, he'd doomed Chocola in the process. It had just taken him this long to realize it.

Hadn't it?

"Giving up so soon?" Mawe mocked. "Well, I suppose dying here would be better than the alternative. Sitting on your haunches while your best friend gets her soul, everything you've understood and loved about them, torn out. Nothing left but a lifeless husk. Who would want to see that? In a twisted sense, you're the lucky one…"

The meteor was close now, no longer on fire, but it now possessed the majority of one's vision now matter where they gazed.

He'd had enough. Of the meteor pressing down on him, of mawe's constant torture, and worse, the thought of losing his best friend to something outside of his control.

"Stop…"

Mawe tilted her head. "What?"

"Just. STOP!" Vanilla screamed aloud. Both at his surroundings and himself.

And then, everything did.


	56. Descent

Drenched in sweat, Vanilla woke up with an audible gasp. Even though he was recently asleep, he felt everything except well rested.

/Congratulations, Young One. You've mastered control over your own mind. There are few non-psychics here who can boast the same.\ Mawe acknowledged with a nod.

Vanilla mumbled something inaudible.

/I didn't quite catch that…?\

"I said I don't want to hear that from you!" Vanilla shouted as he got up and turned away from the mewtwo.

/I don't understand. Are you not happy with your accomplishment?\

"I-I don't know." The eevee admitted as he made his way to the top of the hill. "I just-. I need some time to myself for a while."

/But-\ Mawe started as she turned to follow.

"No!" He shouted. "No. I've had enough of _you_ , for the time being, Mawe. So I'm going to get some actual rest over here until I feel like accepting the apology you're going to prepare in the meantime." Vanilla said as he walked beyond her line of sight. "And stay out of my head this time!" He added.

'Perhaps I pushed him a little far…' Mawe thought to herself. Even if they were on a supposedly tight schedule, and this was for his own good, maybe using his feelings for his friend against him had been a bad move. It was frustrating being as terrible at these kinds of things as she was…

And to top it all off, she _had_ invaded his mind, if only for a bit. While this situation had been approved by Zaho, she'd been working so hard to keep herself from doing something like that ever again, and now she was beginning to realize how wrong it must feel for the eevee during all of this. The least she could do is abide by his wishes.

That just left her with a few hours to herself to do, well, nothing. 'Yeah, no…' Mawe looked down at the cave. She could force herself underwater and attempt to scout out the cave network once more, but she felt as though it wouldn't be wise to leave her charge by himself for too long. At least not by going into a place that would not allow for a quick escape, should she need to reach Vanilla in a hurry.

So instead of exploring the cave once more, Mawe chose to explore the sky instead. At least that way she could keep an eye on Vanilla, despite his insistence that she keep her distance.

Only after he noticed the mewtwo fly off into the distance did Vanilla attempt to close his eyes once more.

When he awoke, it was fully night. Next to his head he noticed a stack of chesto and persim berries sitting atop of a leaf. Vanilla noted that Mawe must have left them as a sign of good faith before as he attempted to eat a few. They did little to ease his anger towards her, but his hunger had been tempered somewhat. It was a start, at least.

Heading back over the ridge, he spotted Mawe leaning sitting near the ledge. Upon his approach, he noticed that she'd been crying. He couldn't tell the exact reason for her feelings, as she wiped away the streams upon his arrival, but he had a feeling that it had something to do with him.

Instead of trying to get her to confide in him however, Vanilla found himself holding his tongue. It would seem as though he still hadn't fully recovered from his earlier ordeal just yet.

Mawe seemed to recognize his hesitance, however, but chose to ignore it as well. /We-\ She stopped herself from using her telepathy. "W-we should be okay to enter the cave now. If that's okay with you?"

Vanilla perked his ears up as she spoke. Unlike the voice that had appeared in his head, Mawe's actual voice sounded quite young. Almost as if she had only recently learned how to speak, in fact. Yet another mystery to add to the enigma that was the mewtwo. Even if he wanted to pry that out of her, he still had a mission to do, and such conversation would only delay him.

He nodded his head in affirmation.

Mawe had thought about using her telekineses to lift them both off of the ground, but thought better of it after Vanilla's earlier complaints. Instead, she chose to kneel down next to the eevee and proffer her arms to him.

Hesitant at first, Vanilla complied and jumped into them.

Doing her best to keep her telekinesis from touching her rider, she lifted herself off of the ground and slowly descended down the cliff. Upon reaching the cave entrance, Mawe changed direction and floated them both inside.

Water was still rushing out of the cave, indicating that it had not been fully uncovered quite yet.

After a few moments, the path started to descend until the cave was fully blocked by a pool of water. Setting Vanilla down on the damp, exposed rock, Mawe turned to him and pointed to the puddle. "To continue, we must swim." She said softly.

Vanilla attempted to quell the fear rising in his heart. Even though he knew it was only a dream, the threat of drowning seemed to have a lasting effect on his psyche. "Remind me again why I'm the one who has to retrieve the soul?"

Mawe very nearly chose to remind him that his friend's life depended upon it but realized that she had already failed to predict his reaction to that news earlier. There was no sense in provoking him now. "Because we know you are compatible. You've heard the call, even as the last pillar called out to Chocola." She stated. "Besides, were I to attempt to absorb the soul, with it being in its current, fractured state, my mental defenses would annihilate it within moments of it entering me. Were it at its full strength, it might be able to hold my mind at bay, but as it is now, my mind would not leave anything behind to reunite with the original…"

Suddenly wondering how things would be different if he'd entered her mind instead of the other way around, Vanilla immediately shook the thought from his head. "Well then. Guess there's no sense in turning back now, is there?"

"Afraid not, Young One." Mawe stated after wading into the water.


	57. The Thread

While the cave wasn't entirely uninhabited, the other pokemon had the good sense to give Mawe a wide berth as she escorted the eevee from the pools and into the salty, air-filled pockets that formed the rest of the cavern's structure.

As soon as they'd cleared the water, Vanilla could feel The Call bearing down on him once more. Even so, there was something inherently different about this one. Instead of the steady rhythmic pulse he'd expected from memory, this beat seemed to shift in multiple directions, the direction and intensity applied nearly at random.

The feeling was far from comforting, to say the least, but at least the rest of their jaunt into the cavern's interior was relatively silent.

The pressure increased upon their approach, just as they had done before, so it wasn't as if Vanilla hadn't expected it. What surprised him though, was how much this Pillar differed from the one's he had seen before. Both the sketch and the previous stone itself had looked as though they'd been carved from a massive piece of dark, jagged obsidian.

Palkia's Stone was massive as well, but that's about where the similarities ended. The stone itself appeared to be a solid, yet partially translucent color near the deceptively rough surface. The shape was more uniform overall, its slightly rounded, yet straight, outline could not be confused with a natural formation. Despite the slight blue glow provided by the bio-luminescent substance coated the walls, the pillar was undoubtedly a shade of whitish-pink.

"Here we are…" Mawe's voice echoed off of the walls.

"So it would seem…" Vanilla replied simply.

Before he could walk up and touch the stone, as Chocola did, Mawe stopped him. "I will do my best to support you, but you must understand that once you make contact, you will be on your own. Whatever the outcome may be."

Vanilla held his paw back at that. Worst case scenario was that he ended up like Chocola, that much he knew. But, if he managed to pull it off, there was hope that he might discover a way to help her along the way. "If this is the only thing I can do to help," He reasoned, "then it really isn't much of a choice, is it?" He finished before reaching out and touching the pillar.

As the pillar lit up and its energy surged, Mawe found herself silently wishing the eevee good luck.

Vanilla found himself inside the now-familiar field of white. Looking around though, he failed to see anyone else. If it wasn't for the ominous feeling he felt deep down, he could have sworn he was alone.

"Hello?" he asked curiously.

He didn't receive a response, not even an echo.

As he pondered whether or not he'd done something wrong, he noticed that he was being overshadowed by something.

Looking up, Vanilla saw a large, twisted mess hovering a few paces above him. The pieces of colorful rope or string that comprised the object writhed against itself as it floated about.

"Um, hello?" Vanilla tried again, hoping that the thing was the piece of soul he was supposed to transport.

He couldn't tell from the tendrils' pulsing that it had even registered his existence. That was, at least, until a few of them angrily lashed out at him.


	58. Unwind

As the tendrils shot out, they brushed against Vanilla's aura. Reflexive instinct kicked in, quarter-turn to the left, push backward, rear up for reversal. So far, Vanilla had managed to dodge the first three tendrils. He found himself rather preoccupied with the fourth strand, however, as not even his newfound abilities were enough to evade the full assault. The fourth tendril didn't strike him, as he mistakenly thought it would, instead, it had actually managed to grasp one his rear legs, wrapping around as though it were some sort of vine-whip attack.

The feelings that coursed through him from the contact were rather jarring, to say the least. Even after he severed the strand with a hastily summoned wall, he felt, well, a feeling of a dull fuzziness spread through him.

What worried him most though was the visual he was left with upon examining the strand. Instead of the solid surface of his skin that he expected to lie underneath his aura, Vanilla found that he too had begun to turn into the same kind of string that his assailant was made of.

Vanilla made it his priority to distance himself from the creature, which thankfully seemed hesitant to pursue.

Upon close examination of his wound, for he had nothing better to call it, his string consisted of little lights. Just as his attacker's string did. Reaching down to remove the non-eevee tendril, Vanilla received quite a shock, one powerful enough to obscure his vision.

The flash was momentary, and soon, he regained his sight. However, upon this discovery, Vanilla found that he was no longer inside of the dream-scape.

* * *

[Why, Dialga!?] came a booming telepathic voice from somewhere up above.

Everywhere around Vanilla, he could only see destruction. Towering waves, mountains of rubble in varying states of decay, and a sky bereft of any light. Every so often, Vanilla swore that he could see a small gap form in the air itself, like a small rip in a piece of fine fabric.

He couldn't make out what was on the other side, but the two figures floating above him gave the rifts little notice.

{I forbid you from acting upon this region. That is all you need to know!} The Dialga's mind shouted back.

[I don't understand. You've never prevented my work before…] Palkia returned as he let loose another beam of energy towards his opponent.

{And that is because your mind cannot comprehend!} the Dialga shot back in conjunction with her own attack.

Their attacks intersected at the exact moment one of the little tears passed between them. The rift absorbed the majority of their combined energy, and tore itself open.

Another creature emerged with a terrifying shout and everything went black.

* * *

Vanilla found himself back in the white nothing of the dreamscape. Shaking himself out of a daze, he tried to make some sense out of what had just happened.

"Are these memories?" he asked to no one in particular. Testing out his theory, he poked one of the motes of light inside of his recently revealed eevee-string.

* * *

He was home. His mother standing over him protectively. His father berating his uncle, Fyst, the fighting-type seat, for too much roughhousing with the younger pups.

Vanilla remembered this. His uncle claimed that such play was vital to a well-rounded upbringing. The other families, his own included, hadn't quite seen it that way. His poor uncle hadn't really been allowed to play with his nieces and nephews unsupervised ever since.

He briefly wondered if that position had changed since the coup. Before he could finish, his train of thought was interrupted by the transition from the memory back into the dream-scape.

* * *

Vanilla reasoned that the creature hadn't pursued him because he not only chopped off a piece of the creature, which he now believed to be a piece of the Palkia's soul, but he was also still in possession of said piece.

Turning to the piece that floated off in the distance, Vanilla carefully offered up the string of memories that had been wrapped around his leg. "Do you want this back?"

The string-form bristled slightly and floated a little nearer. Vanilla wasn't an expert in the random gestures of string-based creatures, but he had a fairly good idea that that meant 'yes'.

"I'll give this back, but you have to promise not to attack again, okay?"

The soul rushed in to grab it's missing piece, surrounding Vanilla on all sides as it did so. More tendrils lashed out, intent on getting a hold of the eevee for certain this time.

They stopped in their tracks just before breaching his aura.

Vanilla hadn't wanted to resort to this, but it would seem as though he had no choice if he wanted its cooperation. Dangling the string in front of him, he held it out over a summoned flame. "Keep it up, and you'll never get this memory back." He threatened. "Attack me again, and I'll do the same to you."

The soul backed off almost apologetically, and in return, Vanilla laid the missing string out between them. Slowly, a tendril reached out and reattached itself to the missing strand.

"See, that wasn't so bad. If you continue to cooperate, I can hopefully reunite you with the rest of, well, you."

The soul trilled with joy, and very nearly reached out with a stringy embrace before Vanilla stopped it.

"Not quite, there need to be some ground rules. First, no touching. It seems as though it's too easy for you to get tangled up with me, and I'd rather not hurt you to get us separated." He left out the part about him not wanting to risk his faculties on the of chance that the reunification wasn't going to damage something he needed. He was going to need those if he was still going to help his friend, after all. The soul didn't need to know that, though. "Do you understand?"

The soul tipped forward once before it started listing to the side, Vanilla guessed that the first was a confirmation followed by a question of sorts. "Oh right, the second thing?"

The soul tipped forward again.

"I want you to show me everything you can. You fight with Dialga, Exile, the zorua family that helped you, everything. If you don't have everything in this piece, I want you to promise me you'll show me once we've reunited you. Can you promise me that?

The soul nodded twice, both of the actions confirming a, 'yes'.


	59. The Observer

Upon the next viewing, Vanilla learned one important fact before anything else; He had no real idea what kind of power the 'ability to manipulate space' even was. He'd assumed that it involved raising continents from the ocean or something similar. But as he perused Palkia's memories, he'd learned that it consisted of so much more.

Palkia was attuned to what appeared to be some set of alternate dimensions. Unlike Giratina's realm, these all seemed to be variations of the world Palkia was intent on altering. Maybe the land would have trees that all leaned in slightly different directions, other times the new land would have no trees at all. Granted, some of the alterations were so minute that Vanilla could not discern a difference, but according to the soul's memory, such alterations could be considered apparent.

For untold eons, Palkia was resolute in his work. Every so often, Dialga would come and re-alter his work, always by manipulating the area's timeline. So long as Palkia was free to continue his manipulations, he did not care if it was altered afterwards.

Other than Dialga's meddling, Palkia was left alone with his work, the ends of which Vanilla could not fathom, pokemon and people alike barely seemed to notice the changes. Such was the nature of Palkia's existence.

That was, of course, until he met one human in particular. A wanderer by nature, he introduced himself as a simple observer. Unlike the other humans that Palkia had come across, this one seemed intent to do little more than experience the world around him.

This human had taken the time to notice Palkia's work, a small change that had occurred in the man's absence, and yet was not the product of a natural change. This new thing intrigued him so much that he sought out the one responsible. His journey brought him to Palkia, and soon, they developed a sense of respect and friendship between one another.

Palkia, because the observer was not motivated by the usual human traits of greed, or power, and the human because the pokemon could provide him with something he couldn't find anywhere else.

Many of their discussions revolved around their observations of each other. The Observer showed great concern over the fact that Palkia's work was a hefty responsibility, bound to be abused if it ever fell into the wrong hands. Palkia merely wondered if their friendship would last forever.

Sadly, the answer to Palkia's question was revealed far too soon. The Observer was mortal, after all, and could not escape his inevitable demise. Losing his companion was the hardest thing Palkia had ever experienced in all of his years.

So moved was he by his sadness, that Palkia attempted his greatest modification of all time. A monument to his fallen friend, and so Palkia created a composite of modifications so unique that even the land beneath it would provide wonderment to any who may discover it. Piece by piece, Palkia pulled space from every realm he could influence.

The work was tedious and painstaking, but it had been his proudest work yet. And just as he deemed it worthy of completion, Palkia was surprised to learn that his work was gone.

Dialga had erased it. She hadn't even attempted to tell him why. This infuriated him in a way he'd never known he could feel and, space being what it was, he rebuilt his monument once again, in what could be considered record time.

Again Dialga erased it, sticking around only long enough to see the landmass eroding away with accelerated time.

The back and forth of creating the monument and its subsequent destruction continued for ages before Palkia finally confronted Dialga. Vanilla could not discern the conversation beyond a few pieces, but he could make out that Dialga declared that Palkia was forbidden from ever building the monument here.

The resulting battle tore open the very sky, and led to Exile's creation. In the end, the only one who remembered the Observer was Palkia himself, so even with their technical stalemate, he had lost.

With that revelation, Vanilla left the memory.

* * *

The memories, while enlightening, still hadn't helped him understand what had changed since then. Other than the fact that the soul piece knew that the timing of the normal release had changed, it couldn't tell Vanilla the reason why.

That meant that his only hope of helping Chocola would likely have to wait until Palkia's soul was pieced back together.

With a groan, Vanilla rubbed his eyes. Despite the minute headache floating around in his head, never resting in the same place for long, he felt inexplicable energetic. Blinking his eyes a few times, he swore he could see the soul just out of the corner of his closed eye.

Mawe cleared her throat. "Vanilla?" She asked in an unusual tone.

'Oh! Right. I just woke up after being possessed.' Vanilla thought to himself. The soul agreed, which was more than a little disconcerting. At least his eyes weren't glowing. "It's me, Mawe. How long was I out?"

The mewtwo seemed to cheer up, if only a little, at the news. "It's been three days. Just longer than Chocola had been unconscious when you arrived at her home."

Wow, he hadn't quite expected that. It would explain why he was so hungry, though. Before he could sate himself, however, Vanilla wanted an update. "Well, I think I have this under control, what's next?"

"You managed to pacify the Legendary's soul?"

"Well, it calmed down once I gave it its memories back." Vanilla declared.

"Memories?" Mawe asked, her interest suddenly piqued.

"Yeah, these little lights on a string. They're both pieces of the soul as well as its memories."

"Oh my! That means you delved into an actual engram…" Mawe's eyes focused on something distant.

"Um… Was that wrong?" Vanilla asked, suddenly uneasy. "Was I not supposed to?"

Mawe shook her head and refocused on the eevee in front of her. "Well, not for you, most likely. Let's just say that you are lucky that you are not a psychic type." The little one didn't need to know how easy it was to get lost in such memory engrams. Usually, only a powerful psychic pokemon could navigate the memories of another at all, but once the access had been gained, it was all too easy to get lost in them. If the victim had a relatively pleasant life before a delve, the psychic may choose to lose themselves inside of it. Forever.

"If you say so, Mawe…" Vanilla said, partly unconvinced.

'Nope, Vanilla definitely didn't need to know that…' the mewtwo thought to herself. "Just promise me you'll stay away from the Legendary's engrams. They are ancient pokemon, yes? Far too many memories to live through again, at least in your lifetime, Young One." She lied.

"Okay, fine." Vanilla conceded, happy to know that he hadn't done anything wrong, at least. His stomach brought itself to his attention before he could change his mind. "Oh, um, do you have anything to eat, Miss Mawe?"

The fact that Vanilla was being polite once more was not lost on her. Using telekenisis, she pulled a bundle from a pile in the corner and placed it in front of him. "Eat up, Young One. You will need your strength for the next leg of our journey."

Vanilla swore he turned three shades of green at the mention of travel.

Mawe did not fail to notice her charge's discontent. "Do not be alarmed. We will not risk using teleportation as long as you possess the soul. Zaho believes that they are linked to Exile's very construction. And with the events of the last few days, I'm inclined to believe him."

"What events…?" Vanilla started before noticing that the cave was in a state of disarray. More light seemed to be filtering in from above than before, and a few of the stalactites were missing, most likely reduced to the rubble surrounding the less-damaged stalagmites. Most alarming, now that he had the chance to observe his surroundings, was that there was also a pile of pink sand where the pillar used to stand.

"For starters, there was an earthquake while you slept." Mawe stated, proving Vanilla's fears correct. "Is something the matter?"

Mention of an earthquake shook loose one of his own memories. Vanilla recalled what he knew about Perihelion's prediction. The events of the supposed future were startlingly similar to the events of the memory he'd just been experiencing. The battle between Palkia and Dialga had caused rifts once before.

"Mawe, what will happen when we return the souls? Once we figure out how to help Chocola, that is."

"Well, we'd like to enlist their help in order to move Exile back into the outer dimension. Why?"

"Because I don't think it will be anything nearly so easy." Vanilla declared.

"Such things rarely are." Mawe admitted.


	60. Titan Dias

If Vanilla was being honest, traveling such a distance while Mawe held him within her telekinesis wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. Either it was due to growing accustomed to the feeling of the mewtwo's ability encroaching upon his aura, or maybe it was the simple fact that the soul floating around inside his head was taking a far greater amount of his focus.

Either way, the journey itself was quite a bit longer than the teleportation would have afforded, but Vanilla was simply content to not deal with the uneasiness he'd felt after his last one. Every so often, they would take a break, not because Mawe needed a rest, but more for Vanilla's sake. Feeling the cool grass beneath his feet was just the thing he needed after having to bear the weight of the mewtwo's presence for so long.

Palkia's soul thought so too, but not for the same reasons. Vanilla wasn't sure exactly how it happened, but he could feel the soul relished contact with the soil beneath his feet. As they approached a location Mawe had called the Titan Dias, where Palkia's and Dialga's bodies were stored, the soul seemed to tug itself in the direction they were headed, yearning for its reunification. It needed to be whole again.

"Are you all right, Vanilla?" Mawe asked

"Hmm?" He snapped out of his daze only to find that the mewtwo was now a few paces away. Looking about, Vanilla was a little startled to discover that he had been the one to move away, not her.

Mawe walked nearer and knelt down in front of him. "It's the compulsion, isn't it?"

"Compulsion?" Vanilla asked, though he had an idea what she was referring to.

"Zaho was afraid of this. The same thing happened with Chocola not long after you brought her home. She continually tries to walk in a singular direction. She's not conscious while she does it, unlike you, but she still moves as though she were one of the human machines, albeit one that still requires food and rest. Her father has been keeping her suspended within a complex illusion that has been keeping her from actually reaching the Dias." Mawe stated while wrapping Vanilla with her telekinesis once more. The break was over. "To that end, we'd best continue. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can try and rescue Chocola."

"Right." Vanilla agreed. Helping Chocola was the priority, but he had to admit that it would be nice to be alone in his own head again. At this rate, he'd eventually have to decline the position of normal-type council chair and become an umbreon like his father. At least that way he'd never have to deal with psychic shenanigans ever again.

And with that, Mawe soared into the air with Vanilla in tow.

* * *

"We're almost there" Mawe declared as they approached their supposed destination.

Vanilla had wondered how such an important piece of exile's history had been lost to time, but now he knew.

Beneath the now descending pokemon was a massive, lush forest. The Loamwood, if Vanilla's knowledge of Exile's geography was correct, he'd never had a bird's eye view of the area before. Nearly hidden by the treetops, a massive hole opened up and seemed to absorb most of the light that entered it.

As they pushed past the branches, they entered a vertical shaft in the earth that even a wailord could fit through, if said water pokemon was capable of floating down an earthen tunnel such as this. Deeper and deeper they floated down until, finally, they reached an opening that led into a much, much larger room.

In the distance, Vanilla spotted the flickering firelight as several torches lit up the surrounding area with their orange light. "The Dias…" was all the eevee could say as Mawe let them both touch down well outside of the carved stone plateau. Even from this distance, he could make out the lifelike statues that depicted both Dialga and Palkia.

Trying to get a closer look, Vanilla took a few steps forward. Curious as to why they landed so far away, he turned back to ask Mawe about it, only to stop in his tracks. He was still standing right next to her, despite his short walk.

"So, he is still not in complete control of the compulsion?" A deep scratchy voice said as it emanated from the shadows nearby.

"I-I just wanted to see the Dias…" Vanilla said, realizing that he must be inside of, what Chocola would call, a 'mirage.'

"I'm sorry, Zaho. The effect seems to be tied to both distance and exposure. I could not have prepared him to resist the effects of a discrete force that grows so slowly. It would be impossible to notice before the symptoms were already evident."

A zoroark appeared in front of them. Vanilla wasn't quite sure how he didn't see the fox standing between them and the Dias, but his presence was unmistakable now.

"You did well, Mawe." The zoroark said with a nod of his head. "I can keep him at bay for a little while." He finished before turning towards the eevee. "We haven't been properly introduced, Mister Vanilla, I am Zaho. The fact that you have not succumbed to the soul residing within you brings me hope that we might save my daughter, Chocola."

"Where is she?" Vanilla didn't realize how much he'd missed her until he thought about her being in close proximity.

"Don't worry about her just yet, I've got her trapped in a maze for the time being. She'll eventually break out of it, but there are still some contingencies in place and Reiga is watching over her just in case. But first, we must prepare you to offer your soul piece to its owner. Until then, I suspect it is still too dangerous for you two to interact."

"Why is that?"

"Because I have a suspicion I know why everything's moved so far ahead of schedule." Zaho said as he looked off into the distance. "I believe that Dialga's soul has learned to influence the world around it, to a degree. The effects are subtle, but I think that he may still be trying to attack Palkia, even in its current state.

"She."

"I beg your pardon, Mister Vanilla?" Zaho tilted his head to the side.

"Dialga's a girl. At least, that's how Palkia sees her, anyway."

"Well, to that end, I think we should head to the campsite. There is much to discuss and perilous little time with which to discuss it, I fear."


	61. The Plan

After Vanilla had clued everyone into what he knew, silence drifted between the gathered pokemon.

Zaho broke it first. "If what you are saying is true, and that we can assume that Dialga is the aggressor, then we will have to take extra precautions in dealing with her. Can we convince Palkia to hold off on resuming his attacks once his soul is reunited?"

It took a moment before Vanilla recognized that the question was directed at him. "Oh, um, I'm not sure. I've only interacted with one piece of the whole, and our conversations haven't been what one would call verbose. I'm afraid I can't predict Palkia's actions before or after we fix him."

"I see…" Zaho said as he rubbed his chin in thought. "Then we shouldn't count on him standing around until we sort Chocola out. I'm sorry Mister Vanilla, but you may have to house the soul piece longer than what we agreed upon."

"What? Why?" Vanilla didn't want to be stuck with the mental stowaway any longer than he had to. The stowaway agreed.

"With no guarantee that either legendary will wait around for the other to be released, we have no choice but to release them at the same time. That means that you'll have to help Chocola first. That way, you can both safely perform the reunification ceremony. Once that's done, we can move onto the real goals of our mission here."

"Wait, I thought all of this was to save Chocola."

"While I wish that were all this is, we've been working out the details for a long time now."

Reiga stepped forward. "Chocola's condition is a reminder that we don't yet know everything about the situation. Had we known that the pillar would call her so early, she would be standing here instead of you. That being said, we _do_ know three things. Giratina created this world, therefore he can bring it back."

Mawe continued. "We expect that this dimension is only temporary. As the Dimensional Pillars are emptied, their strength as anchors wanes, and instabilities in this dimension increase."

"…the earthquakes." Vanilla said to himself. Thinking about that, and Perihelion's prophecy caused him a mild headache. "And the third thing?"

"These two, when awoken, will either continue their fight, and eventually summon Giratina, or they will see reason and will use their powers to restore Exile to the real world. Without Giratina's help." Zaho finished.

"They could really do that."

"Honestly," the lucario admitted, "that is only the best case scenario…"

Vanilla gulped. "And the worst case?"

"The worst case is the same as the current one." Zaho turned to look at the dias. "If we do nothing, or if Giratina doesn't reveal itself during or after the fight between the two legendaries, then this world is likely doomed."

Silence grew once more at the revelation. This time it was Vanilla who broke the silence.

"What do you need me to do."

"I'm glad you asked, Mister Vanilla." Zaho said with a wicked smirk. "Your help will be most invaluable…"

Suddenly filled with dread, Vanilla found himself backing up. "Um, on second thought, could we-"

"I'm afraid there's no backing out now. The moment that Chocola extracted the last vestige of Dialga's soul, our time became limited." Reiga revealed. "Even now, reports should be coming in that Exile's outer borders are not where they should be. It's only a matter of time until they collapse."

"And to answer your question, we must bridge your mind to Chocola's. While there, you must find a way to separate her from Dialga."

"But I don't know how! W-what happens if I fail? If I can't find a way to save her?"

Zaho only clenched his paw. "We can only hope it doesn't come to that…"


	62. Awakening

"Are you sufficiently prepared, Young One?" Mawe asked.

Vanilla didn't like the thought of being connected to the mewtwo's mind again, but that was the only method that would allow him to enter Chocola's dream. It was all-or-nothing at this point, so the eevee decided to double check on his guest before he declared his readiness.

Inside his own mind, Palkia's piece of soul was still safely locked away inside of its temporary prison. Using the knowledge he'd gained from his first encounter, he'd built a box around the stringy being and made it so that every touch would singe it a little. It wasn't enough to hurt it, but at least it had stopped trying to break out for the time being.

Palkia's soul safely verified, Vanilla focused on Chocola. She had to be carried by her father. Even now, her unconscious body was trying to break free in order to deliver the soul. There was nothing else the eevee could do, but free her from this fate. "I'm ready."

"Good. I've locked onto the Dialga's mind. Since I can't see Chocola's dream, I'll use the legendary's soul as an anchor point." Mawe said as she took a meditative position between the two foxes. "All you have to do is break Dialga's hold on Chocola, and the connection will sever. We'll take over from there." Reaching her palms out, one on each of the pups' heads. /Good luck, Vanilla.\

* * *

Unlike his own mind, Chocola's headspace was nearly black, the only light coming from the hazy horizon in the distance. Despite the difference, it felt familiar somehow. And, while the ever-present dark mist seemed to hide things from view, it didn't take him long to find what he was looking for, almost as if he knew exactly where to look.

After his own run-in with Palkia's soul, Vanilla had often wondered why Chocola hadn't fared the same. Even with his fairly brisk training, he'd felt as though keeping the soul at bay was rather easy. It was only after seeing her mind for himself that he'd understood why he had succeeded where his friend had not.

This had been Chocola's first time in the dreamscape. She hadn't known that she was in control here, much like he had during his first encounter with the space. When she'd run into the soul, the zorua had been defenseless.

"Oh, Chocola…" Vanilla called out in concern. The figure before him was just as twisted as the soul he had locked away in his own mind, but unlike Palkia, Dialga's soul had one distinct addition. Vanilla could just make out Chocola's face, but the rest of her had been unwound and absorbed into the legendary soul's own mass.

The eevee nearly panicked as he grasped the situation, only after calming down did he realize something important. The soul wasn't trying to attack him too. It allowed Vanilla to get close enough to examine the situation, and for that much he was thankful. While he tried to trace Chocola's engram string through the other soul, he tried to reason out what had happened.

If the soul pieces were largely the same, it was probable that Dialga had lashed out the same as Palkia did once his soul had been removed from the tower. Without the proper defenses, the soul had probably snagged Chocola more successfully, and, since she was unable to defend herself, she unwound enough for the soul to drag her into itself, one strand at a time. But now that it had her in it's grasp it was content?

Vanilla shook his head. It still didn't quite make sense. Why even pull the hosts in at all? If anything the soul was acting like a young pup who, after catching its own tail, now couldn't figure out what to do with it. Could the soul's pieces not perform more than the most basic reasoning? The only answer he could fathom was that, perhaps, the mechanism that allowed it to attack the host was the same as the one that allowed the soul to reunite with the other pieces. Sort of an instinctual response gone wrong.

Honestly, the minutia of the hows and whys were just details he could use to distract himself from the real problem, which was figuring out a way to reverse the process. He could likely part the string with the threat of fire, as he had done with Palkia, but there was no telling what would happen to Chocola if the larger soul decided to recoil away from the flame too quickly. And even then, there was no way to differentiate between Chocola's memories and Dialga's past the first few lengths of string. He could very well be threatening her on accident.

After some thought, Vanilla decided to try something. Reaching up with his paw, he touched Dialga's string. Besides the brief flash of memory just before contact was broken, nothing happened. In fact, upon closer examination, he realized that, beyond the few points where the two strings contacted, Dialga's soul seemed to pull away, avoiding both his touch and that of his friend.

Even the soul stuck inside of his own mind hadn't done that. It would still try to brush up against him if he got too close, but then again, he'd never been fully absorbed either. Testing a theory that was forming, Vanilla reached out to Chocola. A brief memory flashed before him that time, but it only ended when he pulled away. Chocola's string hadn't avoided his contact.

Vanilla knew what to do now. "Don't worry, Chocola. I'm going to get you out of there!" He declared to her unresponsive form. He only hoped she would forgive what he was about to do.

Taking a deep breath, more to calm his nerves than actually breathe in what he knew was technically non-existent. Vanilla grabbed a hold of Chocola's visage, and touched it to his own.

With all of his concentration, he began to navigate through her memories. If he could find where they intermingled with Dialga's he could separate them. By force if necessary. But to do so, he would have to learn more about Chocola than what she probably knew about herself.


	63. Zeri

As Vanilla swam through Chocola's memories, he only had to start at the first string that connected with Dialga's. Before he moved on to find the other connections, he summoned a ring of material and placed it around the legendary's string, only an engram's length away from where the tendril wrapped around Chocola. Ensuring he could adjust the ring's properties at will, he continued his search in earnest.

His friend's memories were almost exactly what he'd expected of her, even in the short time he'd known her. Before they'd met, she had a tendency to terrorize the other pokemon around her. Her pranks were never harmful but were always surprising. As he continued on, Vanilla noticed that her antics were only a method of last resort after a pokemon had rejected one of her tricks, or after they simply refused to play, often after they'd learned she was a zorua.

He couldn't help but feel a little sorry that such prejudices still affected pokemon from Exile. But after each rejection, Chocola nearly went out of her way to prove them right. Before he'd met her, she'd been alone for a long time.

Moving deeper and deeper, he saw her skills get less refined, as the memories dug farther into the past. The trend of rejection and loneliness continued, and Vanilla found himself skating through the engrams as fast as he could, lest he stop and reach out in an attempt to console the tiny vixen.

So caught up in not getting caught in Chocola's turmoil, that he'd almost missed the change. One moment was the same as the rest of her pre-Vanilla days, and the next she was as happy as he'd ever seen the little pup.

Going back, Vanilla couldn't help but look at what had caused the change. It didn't take long for him to notice what it was. A zoroark, but not her father, but her mother, Zeri, if he wasn't mistaken. Even though the memory was an old one, he could see that their relationship was not too different than the one he shared with his own mother.

Having been told what had happened to Zeri, he knew what happened next, but Vanilla couldn't help but see it through Chocola's eyes now. There had been a fight between the two. Nothing serious, just a squabble over something silly, Chocola didn't even remember exactly what it had been over. Family members have been known to disagree from time to time. It was what happened next that had changed the zorua forever.

Zeri had left that very day, presumably to get some fresh air and a clear her head after dealing with an unreasonable child. Having been left in the care of her father for the moment, Chocola hadn't thought anything different about it.

That lasted until it was revealed Zeri had never returned home. By the time they'd found her, it had already been too late. The young Chocola didn't understand what had happened to her mother that night, but she believed she knew why. She'd believed that her argument had caused her mother to leave that night.

Ever since, Chocola had held onto the belief that she was responsible for her mother's death. She'd hated herself for it, and eventually turned on those around her. Separating herself from others with her tricks became second nature, and the number of pokemon she could count as friends dwindled.

Vanilla wasn't just saddened by this revelation, he was angry. Even as the adults had grieved, they never managed to convince her that it wasn't her fault. Zaho swamped himself in his research, as Reiga stepped in to help, all while failing to see that Chocola had been hurt far more than she had let on.

Why hadn't they known? Why hadn't they told her the truth?

Before Vanilla could ask any more questions, he found himself face-to-face with an engram. It wasn't Chocola's.

What's more, is that this one wasn't quite connected to the vixen either. It just sort of hung there, and when Vanilla tried to go around, the engram moved into his path.

Could the dialga see him there, delving through Chocola's memories? As he tried, and failed, to get around the engram, Vanilla could only come to the realization that it was being offered to him.

On a whim, Vanilla reached out and touched it.

* * *

Vanilla could tell that the memory was more recent, and far more linear, than the battle he'd witnessed between the two titans. He could also tell that it wasn't quite in line with how he thought time was supposed to flow, since the memory seemed to be out of place with the others nearby.

What he could make out was that the memory was stuck in a fixed location. Unable to move inside the memory of a pokemon with which time held no meaning was probably one of the most disturbing situations that Vanilla could think of. Thankfully, it didn't seem to be a trap, nor a prison.

Inside a forest whose dense trees towered, a shadow moved along the periphery of the small clearing. A zoroark. An old one, by the looks of it, but one that seemed to be very interested in the memory's location.

"Curious. A stone that appears to not be a stone." The zoroark observed as she wondered around. From this distance, Vanilla could clearly see numerous scars that shown through her graying fur. "Nor a pokemon either. A shame. This is not the stone Zashuwari seeks…"

With that, the zoroark left the stone in search of something else, only to return and make camp in front of the memory's location, which Vanilla could only assume was the Dimensional Pillar. Every night for a week, the older fox returned carrying a different spherical stone, and before she turned in for the night, she used a skarmory quill to whittle a hole through the center. Before long, she'd acquired a collection of rather large stone beads.

"Do you like them, Curious Stone? Zashuwari made them as gift for her granddaughter." She said while presenting the age-worn stone bead holding her mane in check. "She will choose once she is old enough to evolve. Much to learn of her skills then, if she is to help protect the clan. No time to learn of the old ways…"

The stone, of course, couldn't respond.

The zoroark paid the silent stone no heed. "These shall be enough for generations. Far easier to find than the dusk-stones." She continued as she turned to examine the pillar once more. "Zashuwari wishes to take the Curious Stone a bead as well, but something tells her that this would not be a wise choice."

As she spoke, the old fox reached out with a fore-paw to test the stone, but upon contact, she unintentionally enabled the stone's energy course through her.

Vanilla found, as he expected, that they had both entered the zoroark's dreamscape.

Despite being thrown into a seemingly calm, nondescript space, Vanilla could tell that Zashuwari was alert yet calm, not confused and lost like he was the first time he had been hypnotized. Even from his viewpoint above the pokemon, he could make out the precise moment she tensed up before the soul string lashed out.

Dodging deftly to the side, the zoroark let the tentacles miss long enough for her to counter with a sucker-punch attack. In one swift movement, she'd severed one of the tendrils and used the remaining momentum to carry herself a few paces away from the soul.

"Heh heh heh, it takes far more than that to get the edge on Zashawari…" She taunted as she twirled the piece of engram-embedded string in front of her.

Dialga's soul behaved almost exactly like Palkia's did when Vanilla first encountered it. Having lost a piece of itself, it decided to get it back with a second attack.

Vanilla worried for a moment that Zashuwari was at a disadvantage not knowing what she could do in the realm of dreams, but after watching the soul attempt to attack the after-images of a perfect double team, he noticed what the soul had not. While Dialga was busy attacking what it thought was in front of it, the real zoroark had distanced itself only to sit back and observe.

After the first images were done for, the vixen repeated her mirage, only this time with some alterations. Namely, she left out the captured string from a few of the images. Whether the change was just a whim or some planned action, Vanilla could only guess, but the result was clear, the soul prioritized the string-carrying images first, but still tried to attack the other images if they were too close.

Vanilla hadn't noticed that the images were spaced apart with any real variation before, but now that the soul was taking more and more time between attacking the increasingly distant images, he could see, now, that it took a great degree of foresight to plan such a thing out ahead of time.

Meanwhile, Zashuwari sat back and watched until eventually, the images got so far apart that the soul stopped attacking them. As the last image faded away, it only turned and faced the zoroark.

She held up the string, and the soul pushed forward, only to stop as the fox held up a paw. "Zashuwari sees what you want, Curious thing. She will give it, if the Curious Thing stays at bay. Does it understand?"

As the soul tilted itself forward in what Vanilla recognized was a familiar 'yes' gesture, the zoroark laid the string out carefully before taking several steps back.

Seemingly happy to have its engrams returned, the soul approached, but Zashuwari kept her distance.

"Good. Now that that is taken care of, Zeshawari wishes to know one thing. Does she continue calling the being before her a Curious Thing, or does she start using the being's, name? What says the Dialga?"

The soul listed to the side as if confused.

"Heh, Zashuwari may have accidentally intruded upon the memories while the being was busy. She has seen enough to know. So what is it, Curious Thing, or Dialga?"

Dialga bowed down twice.

"Good, good. Now, Dialga, why has one troubled Zashuwari so?"

The soul offered up an engram, just as it had done to Vanilla, and set it up on the ground, floating far enough away to maintain the distance between them.

As the current memory continued, the exchange between zoroark and dialga continued through questions and memories. The memory rushed forward to what Vanilla assumed was what the Dialga wanted him to see.

Zashuwari had promised Dialga that it would find the other pillars and reunite it with the other pieces, only to find that the other Dialga-oriented stones did not have the same charge as the first. Ideas and engrams could be exchanged, but the soul itself could not. Not yet.

It was discovered that the charge was building in the others, albeit slowly. It would take a very long time before the next pillar had weakened enough to allow another transfer. This would be long after the zoroark's life had met its end, however.

"A promise was made by Zashuwari to fix the broken one, but, it has been years now. Dialga can be delivered to its body, but Zashuwari cannot make the journey again, nor will she allow another to become entangled in one's possession. But that is not to say that Zashuwari breaks her promise. She will prepare another, her daughter, to contain one's secrets. The Zoraork Clan will continue her work."

The soul disagreed. To it, there was no reason to delay the reunification.

"Dialga cannot control its actions in this form. Merely touching you would have been dangerous to one who was not Zashuwari. Can the Pokemon of Time not wait?"

As the memory shifted once more, Vanilla learned that the zoroark had kept her promise, but with a caveat that the Dialga had not understood at the time. When Zashawari's descendant had arrived at the next Pillar, it was not the older Zoroark's daughter, but her grand-daughter instead.

The pattern followed into every other generation, grand-daughter after grand-daughter came and released the soul, made a pilgrimage to the other remaining stones, and finally made the journey to the dias. All of them survived to pass on the tradition.

The soul surmised that the generations it didn't see were helping Palkia's soul reunite with its own body.

This continued until, one day, something changed in the fabric of Exile. Something had come across a remnant of power from beyond Exile's domain, and for the first time since its creation, something had managed to enter the Worldforged dimension.

It was only then that Dialga realized what had happened. With the dimension weakening, Palkia's power was allowed to manifest somewhere. The soul realized that its own power must be present. After a time, Dialga managed to use that small amount of that power to invoke the promise that bound entire generations.

Dialga had called out to the zoroark, and forced the chosen ones to start their work early.

Only afterwards, when the Pillar was approached by a male, one that Vanilla recognized as Zaho, did the soul realize that something was wrong. Zeri, having not finished her training as a vessel for Palkia, had been forced to accept the other legendary pokemon's soul early, and in doing so, it had taken the vixen's life in the process.

And now, history had repeated itself with Zeri's daughter. Dialga had doomed the very ones she'd trusted to look after her for all of these generations, and there was nothing she could do to prevent Chocola's fate.

Until Vanilla appeared, bearing the soul of her enemy…


	64. Daze

Vanilla double-checked that all of the connections were still surrounded by the rings. He'd have to move quickly if this was going to work. It never hurt to be cautious, even if he was in a rush to tell Chocola that she didn't have to blame herself anymore.

Willing his way between the two entities, Vanilla left a solid structure in his wake. He wove it around the rings until they were the only openings left between Dialga and his friend.

He took a deep breath before continuing. The next step wasn't something he wanted to do, but it needed to be done, nonetheless. Without anything else left to prepare, Vanilla tranformed the openings in an instant, snapping all of the rings into discs.

All of the connected tendrils were promptly severed and the soul actually cried out in pain. Vanilla cringed. He hadn't known it could do that. While the soul was distracted, he gently pulled Chocola's twisted form from the cavity of the barrier.

On the other side, Dialga was practically skewered onto the exterior of the cavity. She was unable to move freely, let alone separate herself from the structure.

As the soul started wailing against the structure, Vanilla willed reinforcement while he siphoned his friend out of the hole. Every so often, as Chocola cleared a section of the warped hollow, Vanilla solidified it and let it dissipate into nothing. After all, there was no sense in letting the creature suffer more than what was necessary.

It took every ounce of his concentration, but eventually, he managed to free Chocola. Setting the severed tendrils aside, he gathered the remnants of his friend and moved a great distance away from Dialga before he destroyed the barrier completely.

Once this was done, and the soul distracted, with both distance and access to its pieces, did Vanilla set about trying to get Chocola pieced back together.

Sitting down in front of the mess, Vanilla grabbed the vixen's face. Thankfully, it was still mostly solid. Holding it up in front of him, he tried to ignore how creepy the physical action was.

"Chocola." He addressed the visage. "Chocola! It's time to wake up."

As only silence responded, he gave her a little shake.

"Ugh… Five more minutes…"

Vanilla was never happier to hear her voice. "Heh, sorry, Chocola, but-"

He was cut off. "I- wait!" Her eyes shot open. "Vanilla! I-I can't seem to move. I-"

"Shh. Chocola. It's going to be okay."

"But, what happened? Was there another cave-in, or-?"

"No. Nothing like that." Vanilla took another big gulp of air, more for time to think about how to proceed than anything else.

Chocola would very much like to have a panic attack right about now, but she found it rather difficult while being held by Vanilla. There was something different about him, but she couldn't quite place it. "Why are you glowing?"

'Of course!' Vanilla thought as he hatched out a plan. "Listen to me closely, Chocola. Do you remember that disguise you used when we first met?"

"Duh, I doubt I could forget my own personal eevee mirage. What about it? Did you miss it?" She finished teasingly.

"I'd like to say yes, but it's not about that. I just wanted to know about how you had to change every detail to match that of your zorua form."

"That's an odd request."

"Just humor me, Chocola. I want you to tell everything."

"Everything?"

"Yep." Vanilla said as he gave her a huge smile. "Every intimate detail."

Chocola thought about it for a bit before blushing furiously. The next thing she knew, she'd smacked him. "Vanilla!" she cried, slightly embarrassed. She didn't know he had it in him.

But instead of getting mad, Vanilla could only focus on the fact that she had hit him. Even now he found his gaze wandering over her newly reformed body. Where there had once only been the complex knot of engrams, there was now a complete zorua. "Chocola! You're back!" was all he could say as he both hugged and tackled her. Mental self-image was a heck of a thing!

As much as she enjoyed the glomp, she was only confused by her friend's actions. Vanilla was friendly, sure, but she'd never known him to be that friendly. "Okay… um, couple of questions, Vanilla…"

Pulling himself off of her, Vanilla wiped the tears from his eyes. "Anything Chocola. I'm just glad to have you back."

"Have me back? Okay, we'll revisit that in a moment, but first," She gestured to the creature hovering off in the distance, "what in the name of Arceus is that?"

Vanilla glanced at Dialga's soul. "Oh, that…" He noted that it was being fairly dormant so long as they stayed out of its range. "That's Dialga, well a piece of it anyway…" They sure did have a lot to discuss. Sighing deeply, he asked her what the last thing she remembered was. If there was any way to bring her up to speed, he might as well start there.


	65. Titans

"Wow, I was really asleep for all of that?" Chocola asked in bewilderment. Even though she'd never turn down a good nap, it was still hard to believe that she could sleep through all of those adventures. "And this is the dreamworld? My dreamworld?"

"Yep." Vanilla answered dutifully, glad that Chocola wasn't asking for too many details about her end of the ordeal. He had no idea how to explain that he literally had to clean her up off of the floor only moments ago. "Normally, a dark-type would only end up here if they succumbed to Sleep Powder or some other non-pychic ability capable of putting pokemon to sleep." He beamed. "Or if your dream were interrupted by a certain intruding pychic." Vanilla finished under his breath after remembering how Mawe started training him.

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing! I was just thinking about what I had to learn to get this far. Check this out!" the eevee summoned a little white ball in front of him.

Chocola poked the floating sphere tentatively. "What is it?"

"I'm not entirely sure what it's made of by default. But if I wanted to, I can turn it into anything I wanted." Vanilla demonstrated by tuning his ball to water and then to ice, before settling on some sort of igneous rock."

"So it's kind of like a mirage?"

"Maybe? I don't know. I mean, it acts like a physical item here. Are mirages capable of that?"

"Only if you're the one caught in one, I guess. That, or if you happen to be a zorua that's so young it can't distinguish between reality and the pup's own mirage."

Vanilla made a note to ask her about _that_ story at a later date. He still had work to do after all. "Now that you're all caught up, I think it's time we get out of here."

Before Chocola could ask how, the both of them found themselves suspended very far above the ground. "Hey! What?" Suddenly falling, Chocola found herself staring at a perfectly content, yet plummeting, eevee. "What gives!?" She shouted over the rushing air. "I thought you were afraid of heights!"

Hearing her question, Vanilla remembered that he didn't like being too high up not too long ago. But after everything that's happened to him the last few days, and with the task they still had to fulfill, he just couldn't bring himself to worry over such a trivial fear anymore.

As the ground rushed up beneath them, Chocola could only stare at Vanilla while he gave her a shrug.

The moment, just before they hit the ground, the both of them found themselves awake inside of a torch-lit cavern.

* * *

"-y Child! Speak to me, Chocola!" Zaho cried out as he held his daughter close.

"Daddy?" Chocola answered before attempting to rub the sleep from her eyes. "Ow!" She shouted as she suddenly found it painful to do so. She was sorer than she could ever remember being before. Does that mean that her dream was true? Then- "Vanilla!?"

"Shh, now, dear. He's over on the other side of the Dias. Come now, let's get you to a safe place…" Zaho stated sternly, leaving no room to argue.

Near Palkia's statue, Vanilla had a similar greeting, though not one of a familial nature. "Ugh, my head?"

Are you still you, Vanilla? Mawe asked.

"If I yell at you to cut it out with the telepathy, would you believe it's me?" Vanilla said dryly, to which the mewtwo shook her head in affirmation. "What happened? Where's Chocola?"

"With her father." Reiga chimed in. "Once Mawe discovered that Dialga's soul was by itself, we moved the both of you to your respective statues. You should find your head a bit more vacant now. No offense."

Peering into his mind, he found that he was truly alone. The silence was, while nearly deafening, was still quite comforting. "Umm, non taken, I guess? So then, was that it? We're done?"

Mawe spoke this time. "That depends, once the spirits were reunited, we were to-"

She was cut off by a couple of deafening howls. One was full of anguish and woe. The other was filled to the brim with nothing but absolute rage.

Shouting over the din, Mawe surrounded the three of them with a bubble barrier and sped away from the two awakening pokemon.

And not a moment too soon, as the moment they left the dias, Palkia opened fire on Dialga. The Hyper Beam was aimed directly at her chest.


	66. Beginning of the End

As the booms and battle cries rang out above, Zaho turned to the pokemon not currently locked in combat. "Is everyone alright?"

"I'm fine!" Chocola called out. Sure she was still too sore to move, but that didn't mean she'd been injured too.

"I think so?" Came Vanilla's reply.

"We're both good too." Reiga confirmed before gesturing up to the titans battling it out above. "What are we going to do about them?"

"Plan C." The zoroak declared. "Keep them from wailing on each other long enough to determine Dialga's intentions. If she's only fighting for self-defense, we can focus all of our attention on subduing Palkia."

"And if she wants to fight as much as he seems to want it?" Riega questioned.

"Then we better hope that, _when_ we run into the giratina, it's in a good mood! Now, let's-"

"What about us, Daddy? What do you want us to do?" Chocola shakily stood up, ready to fight if ordered to.

"You'll do nothing!" Came her father's command.

"But-"

"Chocola, you can barely stand. You, boy!-Er Vanilla, Take my daughter and get her as far away from here as possible. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir!" Vanilla acknowledged with a sincere salute.

"Good, then it's settle." Zaho gathered up his concentration. The shadows all around them shifted. Suddenly the thundering booms of the attacks as they met each other head on stopped, only to be replaced by the booms in the distance as the attacks started to miss. The zoroark had managed to hit the embattled titans with some sort of mirage. "You're up, Mawe. Start with Dialga."

As mewtwo soared into the sky the other two adults moved to support, leaving Vanilla to take Chocola to safer grounds.

"Wait, Vanilla! We can't just leave the three of them!"

"What else can we do, Chocola? You can barely move, and I promised your dad, promised myself, that I'd make sure you were safe again."

"And so were just supposed to leave them?"

Vanilla looked back. Up above, while Mawe was attempting to communicate with Dialga, Palkia managed to hit her shield. It wasn't a direct hit, but it was enough to crack the bubble, and sent her tumbling away until she could recover.

He doubted any of them would survive a direct hit. "I know, Chocola. But what can we do? The plan was to get them both to see reason, but it doesn't look like they're willing to listen to anyone…"

Chocola stopped to think. The loud explosions overhead weren't helping. "We make them listen."

"What?"

"Yeah, you just evolve into that super-eevee form and stop them in their tracks."

"I-I don't think-"

"We might not be able to do much more than help the others, I know. But we have to at least try, Vanilla." Chocola said, completely serious. "Besides, I know you. Going up against strong pokemon has never stopped you before, so why start now?"

Up above, while Mawe was attempting to communicate with Dialga once more, Palkia managed to hit her shield again, this time causing it to break altogether. It was obvious the mewtwo had her work cut out for her.

To be honest, he hadn't really thought about the special evolution since he told Reiga about it. He still didn't know if he even could reactivate it again. But Chocola was right, he had to at least try. "Alright." He said simply.

All he needed was a bit of concentration and focus, right? Sure the battle raging overhead was cacophonous, to say the least, but it wasn't much different than the last time he'd performed the evolution. With a grunt, he tightened his muscles and clenched his jaw. He needed the power to help the others. He needed to evolve and save the world.

* * *

Mawe was panting now. It was taking all of her energy to not get hit by Palkia while she was concentrating on getting Dialga's attention without a direct assault. Even so, were it a one-on-one fight between either of the two legendaries and herself, she would be hard-pressed to win. They were just that strong, and she suspected that they haven't even started using their abilities yet.

She remembered being just like them, only a few years ago. The feeling of being more powerful than everything nearby was intoxicating. But as Zaho had taught her, power wasn't everything. Please, Dialga! Listen! You cannot keep fighting like this!

{Out of the way, construct!} Dialga stated as she threw a flash cannon a little too close to the mewtwo's new shields to be considered an accident. {Palkia will pay for his provocation!}

/She's not listening, Zaho. Not even a little.\ Mawe stated as she turned to dodge the rocks summoned by an Ancient Power attack. She wasn't entirely sure who's. /And I think Palkia's way past talk-\

Before she could finish a burst of light lit up the cavern, but it hadn't come from either of the two legendaries that were attacking each other.

Just as soon as it started, the cave darkened back into the dull blackness shortly before being pierced by someone's Hyber Beam.

/|Mawe? Forget negotiations. Concentrate on suppression and chipping away at their health. That's all we can do now.|\ Came Zaho's response through the telepathic link. Looks like Plan D was in full effect now…

* * *

"Vanilla!" was all the eevee in question heard as he regained consciousness.

"D-Did it work, am I-?"

The look on Chocola's face said it all. "Sorry, Vanilla…"

He looked at the stone around his neck. It was still glowing faintly, but other than that, it looked the same as it usually did.

Up above, the tactics had changed, even as inexperienced as he was, he could tell that it was now a battle of attrition. Looking back down at his paw, he just couldn't understand what went wrong…

He'd failed.


	67. No Time for Questions

"I don't understand? What happened?" The zorua asked over the din of fight going on above.

"Nothing happened!" Vanilla yelled in frustration. "Ugh, why didn't it work? How am I supposed to use the power responsibly if I can't use the power when we need it the most?"

Chocola, sore though she was, walked up to Vanilla and punched him in the shoulder. "Focus Vanilla. It's not the end of the world, we've got, like, until tomorrow, at least. So snap out of it, and help me figure out what went wrong. We'll try and try again if we have to, okay?"

Vanilla sighed. Now was definitely not the time to lose his composure.

"You said Reiga knew what the evolution was, right? Maybe she knows what's wrong?"

The lucario in questions was busy concentrating on another Aura Sphere. "I don't think she's up to answering questions at the moment…"

"Well then, try and remember everything she told you. What did Reiga say was the key to activating the evolution?" Chocola suggested before finding the lucario further afield. "Although, we probably shouldn't wait until _after_ the world is destroyed before we try and ask the one pokemon who might be able to answer our question…" She finished.

Vanilla sighed. "Fine. I'll ask, but wait here and try to stay out of sight. I'll be right back!"

Chocola didn't have to be told twice. For one, she really didn't feel up to going anywhere at the moment, apocalypse or no. That and the fact that hiding was her specialty, meant that it was probably wise to do little else.

As he pressed towards the conflict, Vanilla thought about what he already knew about the mega evolution, at least what he'd learned from Reiga the first time he'd brought it up. She'd said something about needing a human trainer to use it, but that their case was different. Wasn't their bond still strong? He's risked everything to save her so far. What then, was he still missing?

"Vanilla?!" Came a sound of alarm from behind him. It was Chocola.

Stopping immediately, he looked towards the area she was pointing at in concern. The space a few dozen paces to his right had started to warp. Even in the darkness, Vanilla could tell that it wasn't the result of a wayward mirage. The fabric of reality shifted and turned as if it were boiling away. Every ripple seemed to pull and tear at the area around it until, eventually, holes started to form. A gray, lifeless void appeared where one should expect substance, or at the very least, air.

But before Vanilla could investigate further, the ground itself heaved him into the air. Just as rapidly as it thrust him upwards, the rock below retreated in the opposite direction, effectively doubling the distance between himself and the ground in short order.

Tumbling back down towards the turning earth, which was currently moving sideways this time, Vanilla realized that the earth beneath him wasn't the only ground affected. All around the dimly lit cavern, rocks were shifting. The torches that were still standing had all but been cast aside.

Landing knocked all the air out of him, and Vanilla coughed up a fit as he fought to remain steady. The thought of standing up was an impossibility until the earthquake decided to subside.

Up above, the aerial battle continued, neither of the two legendaries giving a single thought about the world below, and even Mawe was nearing helplessness after using most of her power. It didn't matter to the titans what happened outside of their fight, so long as one of them could prove themselves victorious over the other.

Still holding tightly to the quivering ground beneath, Vanilla swore he felt the tumultuous earth nearly calm itself. If the trend continued, he might even be able to recover long enough to stand.

But before it could calm down completely, the earth erupted with one final, massive push. The sudden surge of geo-seismic power was enough to split the cavern in two, rending the hole overhead into a massive steep-cliffed gorge.

As the massive rocks that were once part of the cave roof rained down from above, Vanilla found himself desperately searching for Chocola. She too had been tossed about by the quake, but it didn't take to long for his eyes to locate her.

His smile was brief, for realized what she had focused on. Directly above her, sat one of the largest boulders that vanilla had ever seen. No longer having the support of the cavern around it, there was only one place it could go.

Down.


	68. The Final Tear

Time slowed to a crawl, and all Vanilla could do was watch the inevitable. Even as the boulder rushed downward, the eevee's mind raced. Was there nothing he could do? Was there no solution?

He realized that there was only one possible way through this, and in that moment, nothing else mattered. As tears began pouring down his face, he held onto the stone around his neck as tightly as he could.

"Chocola!" he shouted, loud enough to be heard over the din of the rockslides all around. His world went white as his vision filled with energy.

As he floated into the air, Vanilla realized that he'd achieved his mega-evolution once more. There was only one problem. Looking at the orbs he had at his disposal, the four he had were a feathery blue, a creamy pink, a sickly green, and a shadowy purple. Which meant he only had flying, fairy, bug, and ghost types, respectively, with which he could choose from. None of them were of a type that one would consider advantageous in helping his friend out of the current situation.

He needed a plan, and he was pretty sure that he wouldn't have time to form a proper one.

* * *

Chocola was frozen in place. Despite all of the adrenaline now coursing through her system, her muscles failed to cooperate during the duration of the earthquake. She had ended up on her back when the shaking died down, and it was all she could manage just in an attempt to right herself.

When the ceiling started to cave in above her, she knew that it was over. The sheer size and amount of debris were simply too much, and the largest piece of it seemed to have her as its target.

She wanted to flee, she wanted to escape death, but it was almost as though her conscious and subconscious were in direct conflict with each other, and the subconscious was still in control of her body, locking her in place.

Just as she was starting to accept the inevitable, a bright, familiar light, lit up the cavern. Vanilla. He'd evolved to save her, just like last time. That was a weird habit to get into, wasn't it? She should be grateful but deep down, she knew that the boulder was frighteningly large. Chocola doubted that even her friend's rediscovered strength would be no match.

Even as she witnessed Vanilla unleash the power stored within the orbs that encircled him, one after another, Chocola found it difficult to accept her salvation. The rock continued to fall, and there was nothing she could hope to do about it.

* * *

He needed more options than what he had, and so, even as he started accelerating towards the falling rock, the mega-evolved eevee cast the first orb, the pink one. The effect wasn't immediate, and its replacement would hopefully be of more use.

Taking the light blue orb, Vanilla summoned a Tailwind to his aid. He needed all of the speed he could get. Rushing to intercept the landmass, he drained a sticky spider-web-like substance from the green orb and hit the boulder with it. The first attempt at grasping the boulder nearly failed when the webbing proved to be not sticky enough to hold the rock. Vanilla was forced to use the dark orb and use the shadows themselves to fuse the webbing to the stone around it, stitching them to the rock itself.

With nothing left until his replacements arrived, Vanilla could do nothing but pull on the massive rock and hope his form would make a difference. Even as the effect of his first sphere kicked in, boosting his strength through something called Geomancy, he could tell that the stone was still slipping downwards at an ever-increasing rate.

As the fifth orb journeyed to where it was useful, Vanilla ordered the sparkling blue orb's power forth immediately. Geysers of water sprang forth all around his friend, their cumulative effect doing far more to alleviate the force of gravity than his own flight.

But still, the boulder fell. Straining with the sheer weight of it, Vanilla dared a glance back down to gauge his distance. In doing so, he caught a glimpse of something moving along the ground below, but found himself distracted with both a failing grip on the webbing and the next orb entering his vision.

His last option. With the rock so near to the ground there was nothing else he could do. As the webbing snapped below, he used the gleaming white ball on the columns of water down below, freezing them instantly. For a brief moment, it looked like the hastily-frozen pillars would hold. The boulder had stopped.

Then, with an ear-shattering crack, the ice exploded, and the boulder itself smashed into the ground with little resistance.

"Chocola!" He screamed in desperation as he darted through the dust. Circling around the stone, it quickly became apparent that there wouldn't be anything left if-. Vanilla stopped to listen. He could have sworn to hear something, even through the cumulative effect of the still-falling stones. A cough.

"Chocola!" he called again.

"She is fine!" Reiga called back through the settling dust.

"I'm okay!" The zorua confirmed through another cough.

Vanilla found himself hovering in front of them, tears in his eyes. "I-I thought I'd-"

Reiga interrupted him. "You did what you could. More than any of us, perhaps. Chocola will be fine, but her safety won't matter if we allow this to continue. Please, Vanilla. Use your power to help the others."

He found himself torn. His friend was still cradled in Reiga's arms, shaken but alive. Vanilla found that he didn't care about anything else, even if he knew that the lucario was right. "Choco-"

The zorua herself stopped him from embracing her. "No, Vanilla. Reiga's right, as always. Stop the fight." She said while gesturing to the growing number of spatial fissures. "Or we'll have more than falling rocks to worry about it…" As he started drifting away, Chocola could see that he was still hesitant. "Go!" She yelled as best she could. "Go…" she said weakly before slipping into unconsciousness, the waning adrenaline finally taking its toll. Her immediate demise circumvented, the ebb of energy was now sapping what little strength she still possessed.

With that order, Vanilla turned to the sky and took off. It appeared as though he still had a job to finish.

He would just have to leave Chocola in the Reiga's care until then.


	69. To Temper Two Titans

By the time Vanilla had reached the edge of the conflict proper, he found his immediate inventory had refilled. The dazzling yellow contained an electric attack of some sort. The one that looked like a polished slate-grey stone was a rock-type move. The last two embodied a pitch-black ebony, and a Red-brown leathery texture, standing for a dark and fighting type attacks respectively.

Vanilla's first thought had been to question why some of those couldn't have popped up only moments before. His second thought was interrupted by the sudden appearance of Mawe, who looked like she'd seen better days.

/Vanilla? Is that really you, Young One?\ She asked.

As much as he didn't like the telepathy, not giving away a plan of attack to the two dueling deities was a higher priority. «That's correct. What's the plan so far? How can I help?»

/Which plan?\ Mawe stated with a sarcastic tinge to her words. /I believe we're just trying to wear them down before they cause too much more damage, but…\

«We're way past that now, aren't we?» Vanilla surmised as he surveyed the damage.

/As it is, I don't know how much more I have left in me. And they're starting to wise up to Zaho's tricks. It's only a matter of time until they can safely ignore us completely.\

Even now, the mewtwo was only avoiding the attacks that strayed too close. None of them were being aimed directly at her, but that didn't make it any less dangerous. «So we just have to attack them before they do any more damage?» Vanilla confirmed «I believe I can assist with that…»

/Just don't focus on one alone. Zaho says that weakening one will only allow the other to turn on us the moment its rival is defeated.\

«I understand.» Was all that Vanilla said in acknowledgment as he moved to engage Dialga.

Mawe partially hated to see the eevee force himself to do something, she knew, he would otherwise avoid, but she was also thankful for the additional help. Based on how they were doing so far, she needed it. With Dialga taken care of for a moment, she could focus her attention on Palkia.

Now all Vanilla needed to do was get the Dialga's attention, make her focus on him instead of Palkia. He had four attacks, or, more accurately, types at his disposal, he only needed to choose one that was both powerful enough to distract the titan in front of him, and not be a type that would be useful to have if he completely misjudged his opponent's remaining strength.

Summoning the yellow orb forward, he just had to hope that he could make due with the others. As the sphere drained, the very air in front of Vanilla coursed with energy, he only needed to guide it towards his target.

As the region between him and Dialga crackled to life, she focused fully on the new combatant. She wasn't a fool, of course, she'd kept an eye on the newcomer ever since the flash of light earlier. Something had been off about the new pokemon that she couldn't quite pin down. What was worse, she couldn't remember an encounter such as this in her memory. That meant that she was here for the first time.

That also meant that she could afford to take no chances. Instead of taking the hit directly, she shunted most of the energy away using Iron Tail. {You're a fool, siding with Palkia…} She stated. {I'll teach you to choose the side of that brute!}

He just had to keep her from fighting with her counterpart, right? "Better a brute than a bully! I know what you did to Palkia!" Vanilla yelled. "You destroyed his work every chance you got. All he wanted to do was remember a friend, the only way he knew how, and you kept it from him. If anyone's a brute here, it's You!"

{You could never understand my reasoning. Palkia cannot be allowed to continue!}

"And you won't _let_ us understand. According to Palkia's memory, you've never once stated your reason. You simply destroyed his work."

{Only an achronognostic being could fully comprehend the matter. Your minds shall ever be only linear.}

"That's no excuse. You never even-!"

{ENOUGH!} Dialga yelled through the link. {I tire of this! Away with you!} She finished before unleashing a tumultuous shout.

Palkia recognized Dialga's Roar of Time even from this distance. Ignoring the Mewtwo completely, he started using his own ultimate attack, Spacial Rend.

«Um, Mawe, I've got a bad feeling about this…»

/Defense! Now!\ was all the mewtwo managed before the two attacks collided, twisting the epicenter into an insane mixture of alternate timelines and dimensions, before the event horizon annihilated itself into normal space.

Even as Vanilla weathered the attack, he noticed that the dimensional tears below were beginning to merge. «This plan isn't working.»

/This plan is all we have. We just have to keep at it.\

«There's nothing we can do against those kinds of attacks. My attacks are too random and your energy levels are starting to dwindle. We need to alter out strategy.»

/What are you suggesting?\

«Uh, give me a moment. You lay low and conserve your energy while I cycle through my attacks. I need a sleep-inducing move.»

/You intend to use Hypnosis on them? I hate to disappoint, but it won't take them long to break out of it.\

«I only intend to hit one of them. You'll need to hit the other with a similar attack.»

/And then what? This approach will only delay the inevitable.\

«That's why I want you to conserve some energy. Once they're down, I'll need your power to pull off the rest of this plan…»


	70. No Rest for the Weary

The usage of the typed spheres hovering around Vanilla had always been, what he considered at least, a mixed blessing. On one paw, they gave him access to an insane amount of power that came without the usual restrictions imposed on most pokemon. On the other paw, he felt as though their usefulness was offset by the randomness with which the orbs themselves were being made available.

Couple that with the fact that he was opting to keep at least one solid defensive move on standby, just in case one or both of the titans decided they wanted to destroy a little more of the universe again, and the task of cycling through his attacks to get to the one he wanted suddenly became a lot harder than it sounded.

At least Vanilla wasn't having a hard time aiming his attacks at Palkia and Dialga. Besides their reality-warping attacks, their other moves were still being aimed at him, so returning fire was the least he could do. Having a random set of attacks being thrown at them was keeping them on their toes, but only barely.

The real challenge was making sure that neither of them managed to break out of the hypnosis attacks before he could enact the plan. That reason alone meant that he was keeping more than just a single defense-capable orb in play while cycling through the rest of them.

Vanilla ended up tossing rocks, beams of energy, a not unsubstantial amount of water, and at least one flamethrower attack at either of the two before he found the orb he was looking for.

«Standby, Mawe. I'm almost ready.»

/Good luck, Vanilla.\ she encouraged him.

Now that he wasn't actively attacking the two, they'd immediately turned their attentions towards one another. With a heavy sigh, Vanilla steeled himself for what was next. Time to get their attention.

Pulling on the recently acquired ebony orb, he drained its dark energy until it surrounded him in a coil-shaped cloud. Pooling one end of it in his paw, he pulled it back and whipped the entire shade forward in one, swift motion. The end of the trail snapped directly in Palkia's face, angering him and forcing him to focus on Vanilla once more.

Just as Dialga decided that the refocused Palkia was a tempting target, Vanilla pulled the energy from the marbled white orb, the first he'd ever managed to use while in this form. The white light that surrounded him acted as a beacon. Focusing the light in Dialga's direction caused her to change targets towards the evolved eevee as well.

"That's right, follow me…" Vanilla taunted as the two titans started converging on his position. Even now, he was pouring the energy from the orb filled with a swirling purple mist. He'd only get one chance at this.

/Now?\ Mawe asked, taking cues from his setup that it was almost time for her own attack.

Vanilla, instead of answering, fired off his hypnosis first. He could combine his and Mawe's attacks into a single, stronger attack, but he thought it would be better to use the mewtwo's stronger psychic abilities to hit them when they were already down.

Even now, the two legendaries were fighting to stay awake, it was time. «Now!» Vanilla shouted through the telepathic link.

As the mewtwo unleashed her attack, Vanilla let himself get caught in the wave of psychic energy. The three pokemon fell into slumber even as their unconscious bodies fell towards the floor.

Mawe found that she was glad to have had a moment's respite, as she now found herself both connecting the three sleeping pokemon, and preventing them from hitting the ground.

/It's all up to you now, Young One…\ She finished as the three pokemon drifted onto the ground.

* * *

Vanilla found himself within the now-familiar confines of his own mind. Trapped with him, however, were two _very_ angry legendaries.

{You will regret your actions, Eevee…} Dialga threatened. {Especially now that your transformation seems to have failed you.} She finished, noting that Vanilla wasn't mega-evolved here.

Sure enough, Vanilla's paw was quite solid, despite the slight glow of his aura. "No, I think you're mistaken, Dialga. It's no surprise that you don't recognize this place, but I think that Palkia does."

Dialga turned to her opposite, as if to question him.

[We're inside the eevee's mind now.]

"Correct, and as such, I must warn you. I hold _all_ of the power here."

{Why, you…} Dialga decided it was time to show the pup a lesson, but her attack died with her next breath. {What!?}

"Even if you had some experience here, Dialga, I think you're a bit out of practice. I am not." Vanilla declared as he wrapped both of the titans within their own bubbles. "Anything else?"

[What are these?] Palkia asked when he found that his abilities were being suppressed somehow.

"A precaution. Dialga's surrounded with a void that even her time-manipulation can't affect, while your prison is made of space that doesn't exist yet.

{You can't hold us here forever…}

"Honestly, I don't know how long I can hold you, but in the end, it won't really matter."

[How so?] Palkia decided to entertain his captor, if only for a while.

An image from Vanilla's recent memory appeared behind him. "As you can see, your battle is tearing through the fabric of our world. Again. It's only a matter of time before Giratina comes to investigate. I trust you both remember what happened last time?"

{[Yes…]} The two stated in unison. {Are we just supposed to wait here for the inevitable yet again? What do you intend to do with us?}

"My intention is to get to the bottom of this whole mess. Any suggestions?" The two legendaries remained silent. "Well, I'm listening? Tell me why you two are at each other's throats!"

[You know why! She keeps destroying my work!]

{Your work cannot be allowed to exist!} Dialga shot back.

"Why?" Vanilla asked, happy to finally be getting somewhere. Who knew that a little time-out was all that they needed?

{It would be difficult to explain to non-achronognostic beings such as yourselves…}

[How would you know? You only started destroying my work! You've never once told me why!]

Dialga was silent for a while. {From your perspective, that's true. However, from my experience, it is a much differnet story. I've tried explaining it countless times but the result is always the same…}

"What about me? Have you tried explaining it to me yet?" Vanilla inquired, suddenly curious about how it was possible to have both no conversation, yet many.

{…no…}

"Well then, let's get on with it."


	71. Mind Over Matters

{If I am to begin, I will ask you what you know of the humans who inhabit this world?}

"Not much, really. I know that there aren't any on Exile, but they have been known to train pokemon how to fight in other places."

{Then there is still much you do not know.} Dialga grumbled. {Let it be known that their race existed long before the lives of pokemon. Even I cannot reach a point where they did not already exist. I do know, however, that their civilization has risen and fallen multiple times.}

"Their civilization just failed? I didn't know that that was possible."

{It is. They inevitably end up in the throws of their own greed, and after that, it is only a matter of time until they've reduced themselves to little more than scavengers.}

"Okay… But what does that have to do with Palkia's memorial?" Vanilla asked as he turned to the pearl-colored pokemon. "You didn't hurt any humans or anything, did you?"

[Absolutely not! My work was pulled only from realms that contained no living creatures.]

{And yet you haven't the forethought to ask _why_ so many different dimensions, so many different timelines, exist? Why so many of them are empty?} Dialga scoffed. {I'll tell you. Some of their failures are far more successful than others. Devistatingly so. Sometimes, nothing survives the crash. And you want to pay homage to one of these creatures?! Hah!}

[Not all humans are the same! The Observer was different!]

{Believe what you will…}

"No, I have to agree with Palkia. Not all humans are the same, at least that's what Reiga believes. She's only spoken fondly of her trainer, so they can't be all bad, can they?"

{Good or not, it doesn't matter what you believe. They can do terrible things. They've done them before, and they'll do it again.}

"Like what, exactly? All you've given us are vague hints so far."

{For good reason! Normally, the humans are content to continue their cycle of death and rebirth, but the moment they discover Palkia's monument, the moment they start asking _why_ something like that exists, that is when they start looking closer. And when they do, they invariably discover one of the results of their true past. And what's buried there, must never be allowed to reawaken.}

"What happens then? Can their past really be as bad as you say?"

{It can be _worse_. In all of my travels, there are few that don't end in disaster. The majority of the timestreams can all trace their end to the moment the humans find your monument. Sometimes it's the very atmosphere choking the life out of everything on the planet, other times, it's an endless storm that tears at everything until there is naught more than sand. And then there are the times where everything has been reduced to nothing at all.} Palkia visibly shivered, even through her bonds. {That's why I've gone out of my way to stop you, Palkia. Your monument cannot be allowed to exist!}

[I-I had no idea…]

{You still don't. The first few times, I tried being reasonable. You've told me your reasons, and I respected them. I even tried working with the humans, to get them to see things before it was too late. But in all of my attempts, it has never once worked…}

"Maybe you just talked to the wrong human?" Vanilla suggested, trying to be helpful.

{I'VE TALKED TO THOUSANDS!} Dialga shouted with all of her strength. {I-I've been at it so long… I almost don't remember when I started… So then, after I wrote them off, I decided to end the problem at its source. Originally, that meant convincing you to bury the device on some other world, but that was when we learned the true nature of the other dimensions. The device exists on all of them, and as such, Palkia had found that it was something he was incapable of manipulating away. Even as he searched desperately for an answer as to why I had already realized the result. After that, I'd resigned myself to a new timeline. I'd just wait until you'd finished the alternate monument and I'd just erode it away. But, of course, you'd always notice. Always. And then we're right back to square one…} Dialga finished. Vanilla could hardly believe it, but the legendary pokemon in front of him was actually crying.

He found that he didn't want to leave her like that, but, honestly, what choice did he have? There was still work to be done in sorting this whole mess out, but there was no guarantee that anyone else would be able to get into this position again. Taking a deep breath, he asked his next question.

"And that's supposed to justify the death and destruction you are responsible for?" Vanilla's face was impossible to read.

{W-what are you talking about, I've never-}

"The zoroak named Zeri. Mother to Chocola, the zorua whom you _also_ almost killed when you forced her to be the vessel with which to carry your soul."

{That wasn't me, that was-}

"Don't forget that I've seen your memories. Both of your memories, I might add. So when you say that it was Palkia's soul that ultimately destroyed Zeri," Vanilla said while glancing over to the pokemon who was currently flinching under the accusation. "I know that it is true. But, I also know that, had you not used your influence to speed things up, Dialga, the agreement you had with their clan would have continued on as normal and both of you would have been free to do what you pleased."

Dialga didn't look up at her accuser. Not once.

Vanilla continued. "And, while I have to take you at your word that your story was genuine, it doesn't pardon your actions in the slightest. It doesn't excuse the destruction you both have caused in the slightest either, Palkia." He stated as he glared at the pearl titan who had, until then, been gloating a little over his counterpart's predicament. "It's obvious to me that, while I might not understand all the intricacies of your pasts, I am the only one, besides the two of you, who now knows the whole story. On top of that, I'm also the only one in a position to punish both of you."

[What could you possibly do to punish us?] Palkia asked, a little insulted that he'd just been threatened by something a fraction of his own size.

"If you must know, the easiest thing I could do is simply wait until Giratina shows up and pass you off to him. But, since I control everything here, I can do all manner of things to you until he arrives. So, you can agree to accept my punishment, or you can enjoy my pleasant company until the rest of your punishment arrives. You're choice, really." Vanilla lied. He wasn't about to torture either of them. That wasn't how a civilized pokemon was supposed to operate, regardless of Mawe's forced teaching methods.

{We submit…} Was all Dialga said before Palkia could speak up once more.

[I- But-!]

"Well, Palkia? Dialga, at least, agrees that you both deserve some form of punishment. What about you?"

The opalescent pokemon thought for a moment before giving his answer. He had to admit, despite the eevee's size, he had managed to seal away the both of them with nothing more than a thought. And there was no telling how long it would be until Giratina showed up again. [What would you have us do?]

"I'm glad you asked!" Vanilla admitted with a smile on his face.

Palkia suddenly found that the feeling wasn't so mutual…


	72. Negotiations

[Wait… Is that really all you request of us?] Palkia asked, slightly confused.

"What? Did you expect me to torture you, or ask you to revive the dead?" Vanilla said shaking his head. "No. That damage has already been done. Neither of you were thinking clearly while your spirits were still split, so I don't think it's right to punish you for actions you only had partial control over. If you want forgiveness for that, you'll have to take it up with those you've hurt."

{But, to only have us repair the superficial damage? After all we've done?}

"Look, you've submitted to my punishment. To me, that shows sincerity. After I've released you, your actions will show that sincerity to the others. Besides, you can either fix things, ask for forgiveness, and hope that you can repair the rifts before you further anger Giratina, or, you can ignore everything and expect to recieve his punishment anyway."

[-And all without knowing if the punishment will even be the same as before…]

"Correct." Vanilla agreed. "So, are you ready to make amends?"

{Please. If you truly believe that to be our punishment, then it would be discourteous of us to be flippant towards it.}

[For once, we agree. If that is all that is required of us, then so be it.] Palkia noted before turning towards Dialga. [Truce?]

{For now, at least…}

"Great! Now that that's settled," Vanilla said as he released the constraints he'd created, "I don't think my normal method of awakening will work on you two, since you can levitate and all. So, um, Mawe? A little help here?"

With that, the three were pulled out of Vanilla's dreamscape and back into the real world.

* * *

When Vanilla awoke, he found Zaho bracing himself against Mawe, who was now very nearly out of energy. He also discovered that his form seemed to have reverted back to his usual appearance while he had slept.

"Speak, child. Is it over?" Zaho shouted in question as the two titans pulled themselves off of the ground. Of the three adults left, he might be the only one left still capable of combat, but it would be a very short fight.

Turning back towards the two legendaries, Vanilla only asked his own question. "Well? How do you answer?"

Palkia looked towards Dialga, noting her expression. [We submit. We will put our differences aside for now…]

"Is that so?" Mawe said weakly. "Then we were successful?"

Vanilla could barely make out what the mewtwo was saying at this distance. He still needed to check and make sure everyone was alright, but before that, he had one more thing left to do. "Alright, Palkia, Dialga, now is the time to make good on your promise…"

[Shall we?] Palkia growled a question to his opposite.

{We are short on time, it would be best to make the most of it…} Dialga observed as she lifted off into the air. Palkia followed closely behind as Vanilla turned towards the others nearby.

"Where are they going?" Zaho asked of the eevee.

"Hopefully, they start trying to fix up the place."

"And you've managed to halt their fighting, excellent work, Vanilla…" Zaho stated. He wasn't known to give praise often.

The eevees ears drooped a bit. "Thanks, I suppose, but why do I get the feeling that you're not telling me something?" Vanilla asked even as his pace quickened. The mere thought that something had happened to Chocola during his absence was enough to send shivers down his spine.

Thankfully, Zaho was quick to point towards the Reiga, who was still holding his daughter safely in her arms. "Calm yourself, pup." Zaho advised. "While your truce may be a success, I fear it may have come too late."

"You mean that Giratina is already here?!" Vanilla asked in alarm.

"No, not yet. But we've seen evidence of him near the rifts." The zoroark explained even as the voids in question were being cleared away by Palkia and Dialga.

Vanilla watched on as massive boulders rose into the air from where they had recently fallen. It was a little disorienting to see them reverse course in a way that only a time-manipulator could manage. Even as the rocks were set back into their original places, he found himself making a mental not to step on the same regions where they had landed. For safety.

Shaking his head from the sidetracking thought. Vanilla turned his observations towards the rifts. Slowly, but surely, they were being filled in with real space, like water flowing out of a hole in a bucket, but in reverse. "But if they manage to seal the rifts, won't Gira-" Vanilla stopped himself when he spotted it.

Unlike the other, smaller holes, there was one at the center of it all. One that was different. Unlike the ones being cleared away, this one wasn't really a hole at all, as it seemed content to merely warp the area around it, forming a crack. Upon further inspection, neither of the two legendary pokemon's efforts seemed to diminish the crack's size.

Just as Vanilla was about to ask if the anomaly was what he thought it was, a terrible screech emanated from the tear in question, causing the crack to spread, cracking reality as though it were mere ice. Even as the screech faded, the chasms spread further, and soon, the pieces began to fall away into the rapidly spreading void.

Palkia and Dialga had noticed it too. Halting their work, the two took positions between the rift and the gathered pokemon still recovering from their previous battle.

Facing the rift, they waited for their jailer to emerge from his realm once more. As if on cue, once the cracked space had stopped its spread, a monstrous form pressed itself into the fabric of their world.

Giratina had arrived.


	73. διαστάσεις

As Giratina swooped through the newly created hole in the universe, the first thing Vanilla realized was that the ruler of the Mirror Dimension was massive. He was far larger than any pokemon had a right to be. For a moment, the eevee worried that the cave roof was in danger of colliding with the gigantic pokemon's head.

With the flashing of a sphere that didn't quite seem to exist, the worm-shaped Giratina suddenly acquired as 3 sets of legs and its tendrils solidified into wings. It then proceeded to perform a heavy landing just in from of those gathered.

Once the localized tremor subsided, the only thing that pierced the sudden silence was a low, rumbling growl that was emanating from Giratina.

As everyone looked at each other in uncertainty, Palkia and Dialga turned towards their would-be captor in submission.

{We apologize for out actions, Giratina. Because of our quarrel, we've damaged not only your world, but this one as well.} Dialga paused for a moment. {W-we accept whatever punishment you deem-}

Giratina's roar cut her off, the very air around him blinding the area with an immense, powerful light. Vanilla didn't understand, why would the massive pokemon be angered at the display of conciliation?

When it became evident that Giratina meant to attack the lot of them, Vanilla felt as though time had slowed down. Dialga had turned towards him as if to say that she was sorry, one last time. As he turned towards his other acquaintances and friends, he noticed Mawe had started to throw up a desperate barrier. In doing so, he suspected she would end up using the last of her reserves. There would be no surviving a second attack. Lastly, there was Chocola, still fairly immobile, tucked within Reiga's arms, her sky-blue eyes focused on his own. In that very moment, Vanilla realized what it was he had to do.

Even as he recognized his friend's voice calling his name, he'd already made his decision. Running forwards as fast as he could manage, Vanilla escaped the confines of Mawe's shield before it could finish coalescing.

Vanilla passed between the two legendaries who were willing to give themselves up in retribution for their own actions. Putting himself between the ones he loved, and those he'd only just met, Vanilla screamed at the top of his lungs, putting every fiber of his being into his words. "GIRATINA! HEAR ME NOW!"

Even as the rumbling stopped, and the charging atmosphere dissipated to its normal, cavernous darkness, Vanilla could almost believe that his final charge had worked. Taking a cautious peek, Vanilla opened his eyes, only to find that he was now nearly nose to nose with Giratina himself.

The master of the Mirror Dimension stared down at the eevee for what seemed like an eternity. At this distance, Vanilla got a literal eye-full as he realized just how small he was compared to Giratina. He was starting to wonder if the larger pokemon could even see him, when the massive head pulled back and laughed.

The laughter was more of a deep, guttural howl than laughter, but even Vanilla could recognize it for what it was. Even so, he wasn't quite sure if he should be concerned for his safety, or thankful that he wasn't already being turned into some sort of inter-dimensional pastry.

Almost as soon as it had started, the laughter abruptly stopped, and Giratina was back at eye level with Vanilla. The silence that followed was nearly deafening to those who could do not but stand aside. The larger creature's gaze dwarfed the smaller eevee's frame. It was almost enough to cause a lesser pokemon to faint in dismay, yet Vanilla stood.

Even at this distance, Chocola shuddered. "Reiga, What's going on? What's Vanilla doing?"

She never received an answer. Not Reiga, nor any of the others present understood what was happening. But what everyone _was_ able to understand what happened next.

Giratina stood back up to his full height, and with a flick of his orb, returned to his serpent-like form. With a roar, the mysterious legendary drifted through his dimensional rift once more. The shards of normal space filled in the gap shortly thereafter, piece by piece falling into place as the gateway sealed itself away behind him.

Only after Giratina returned to his home, did Vanilla turn back towards the group, all of whom eagerly awaited news of the recent exchange. But, before Vanilla could answer their silent question, he was surprised to learn that it was the ground that he would be answering to instead, as the exchange seemed to have taken every last bit of energy he had left.

As Mawe dropped the shield, Zaho sat her down to rest before he approached the unconscious eevee, wary of the two Legendary pokemon he had been fighting only moments earlier.

"I-Is he…?" Chocola asked, hesitant to finish her own question.

Zaho breathed a sigh of relief as he picked Vanilla up. "Relax, Chocola. I imagine he only requires rest." He finished as he passed between the two titans once more while carrying the pup.

{…} Was all Dialga could manage as the zoraork passed by once more. No words were spoken, telepathically or otherwise, but the telepathic link had been established nonetheless.

Stopping between them, Zaho spoke. "I have no doubt that there is much we need to discuss, whether you would like that or not. But for now, I suspect that we all owe this boy our lives. I don't know what he did to make you change your minds, but, if you have any respect for this eevee, for Vanilla, you will stay and see things through." Without even waiting for an answer, he returned to the others.

Though the danger was no longer imminent, it was likely that there was still a substantial amount of work to be done. Only once Vanilla had recovered, would they would learn what their next move was. Though the same could be said for all parties involved.


	74. A Brand New Day

Chocola eyed every last item in front of her. She'd spent the better part of the week setting this little outing up, and she wasn't about to leave something out of place if she could help it. And yet, there was still something, or rather, someone still missing.

"Aha!" Vanilla shouted triumphantly as he jumped out of the nearby bushes. "How was that for a surprise!" he asked.

The rustling of the underbrush gave his approach away, but Chocola didn't care. She was just glad he was there. "Pretty surprising, I'd say. Especially considering how late you are!" She giggled.

"Sorry about that." Vanilla apologized as he sat down next to the vixen. "I was having trouble losing my entourage."

"Oh? So the other Council Members are keeping an eye on you?"

"After all that's happened, I'm lucky if Lady Cordon lets me out of her sight for even a moment. I was forced to use Clementine as a distraction, not that I think he would mind… At least they let me go with the first of the council processions, that was the only way I could be in the area for this." Vanilla finished explaining as he pointed towards the field of flowers that sat before them.

"I'm glad you could come too." Chocola admitted readily. "Ugh, so much has changed so fast… That night we spent on the top of the Forum Building feels like it only happened yesterday, and pulling you out of the garden over there was only the day before that." She sighed. "Where does all the time go?"

Vanilla tactfully left out the fact that for her, it basically _was_ a short amount of time between events. "Well, I suppose time flies when you are trying to save the world…"

"But we already saved it? Didn't we? So why can't you stay for a while?" Chocola asked. Though painful to admit, she had been starting to miss him.

He'd been roped into helping the Council ever since he'd volunteered to report the Legendary Pokemon Awakening Incident to them. The sheer amount of decrees that went out during the next few days had kept everyone busy. Following one of his own proposals, that the council members themselves travel in small groups in order to meet with their constituents, was the only reason he'd been able to escape the Forum Chamber's confines at all.

"Well, Exile may be safe from the threat of collapse for now, but new problems are springing up all over. We're no longer cut off from the rest of the world."

"…I know, it's just, well. It's been a lot quieter in the house lately…"

"Oh, right, I guess you still haven't fully recovered yet." Vanilla observed. Upon his friend rising to greet him, he realized that she laid back down rather quickly.

"Nope. I've still got a few days until I'm back up to a hundred percent. At least that's what the audino have been saying." Chocola said as she slowly flexed one of her paws for emphasis. "Gotta love daddy and his secrecy. If he'd had some healer pokemon tag along for that last fight, I'd be good to go already."

Silence filled the next two moments as the two gazed upon the meadow in front of them. The sun was still rather low, and its warmth was just starting to reach things on the ground.

"I'm sure Zeri was just doing what he thought was best for you." Vanilla assured her. He wasn't quite sure if his actions were helping. "Oh, you said something about being quiet at home? How's everyone doing lately?"

"Well, I'm pretty much left to my own devices lately…"

"What? Did Reiga leave already?"

"Not quite. She left to secure some transport from a lapras or whomever will attempt a trip to the mainland. She says that most of the locals are too afraid to make long trips or something. Anyway, she's pretty much packed up and ready to go at a moment's notice."

Thinking about it, that made a little sense. None of the Exile-born water types have ever been able to travel farther than the barrier until recently. Reiga would likely have to converse with some of the newcomers showing up if she wanted a ride. "Aw, I see. She's got a lot of work ahead of her. Still, I hope Reiga's able to find what she's looking for."

"Yeah…" Chocola admitted. If she were being honest with herself she'd also have to acknowledge that she was going to miss the antagonizing lucario, if only for a moment. "Oh, right! I guess that Mawe's been pretty busy too!"

"I've heard. Something about a way to keep Exile hidden?"

"Yep, She's been zipping all over the place making sure that humans can't find us. She's been working with Palkia trying to find a way so that other pokemon can help. For now, though, I think she's just happy to have something to do that helps others."

"That's good to hear. I know from experience that she can be, well, difficult to approach." Vanilla was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that the mewtwo was actually younger than he was. Something he had only discovered after asking her why Dialga had called her a construct during their fight. The humans sure had some scary stuff, alright.

Silence sprang up again, but not a moment too soon. Before them, the flower petals had finally reached their morning fill of sunlight, and most of them had begun to open up to the sun's warmth for the day. As they did so, their guardians took to the sky to get their dose of sunshine as well. The sight of so many little floette and flabebe filling the air was breathtaking, yet cute.

As the aroma, that only multitudes of fresh flowers could provide, filled their lungs, the flower pokemon started drifting lazily to the ground, each in the middle of their own little arbitrary, fluttering dances.

"Guess that means that Spring is officially here!" Chocola exclaimed as quietly as she could. They were still under direct orders from Feiss not to disturb the waking pokemon just yet.

"Yep, no denying that!" Vanilla said flashing an even brighter smile than normal.

"Oh! Right, time for snacks!" Chocola declared once the main event had passed, wasting no time to dive into the nearby basket. It seemed no amount of soreness would keep her away from some sandwiches.

Snagging the one that the vixen had offered, Vanilla bit into his own treat. It wasn't quite one of Reiga's concoctions, but it was still pretty good.

After they had both eaten their fill, and Vanilla thanked Chocola for her hard work. There was only one question he had left to ask, though, and he didn't quite feel like leaving his friend alone on this particular subject just yet. "What about your dad? What's Zaho been up to lately."

Chocola sighed. "You know him, already off chasing some weird rumor…"

"Like what?" Vanilla asked. He'd hoped that his actions with the council would free up at least some of the zoroark's workload.

"I don't know, something about a human that looks like a pokemon, or a pokemon that thinks it's a human. His message wasn't very clear."

Neither option sounded very pleasant, at least if one was talking to Dialga on the matter. Still, though, Vanilla would love the chance to talk to someone who might know more about humans than even Reiga.

"Ah, don't start that up just yet!"

"Huh, start what up?" Vanilla asked, tilting his head in confusion.

"You've got that look in your eye that I normally have when I'm thinking about getting into trouble…" Chocola accused.

"Oh, am I really that easy to read?"

"Maybe. All I know is, if you want to get in trouble, you're going to have to wait until I can come with you."

"I wouldn't have it any other way!" Vanilla agreed. Honestly, the thought of going alone hadn't even crossed his mind. "I only recommend that we avoid secret, hidden caverns for the time being."

"Yeah, I suppose our record hasn't been great with those lately…"

As the spontaneous laghter died down a bit, much to the confusion of the nearest floette, Vanilla continued. "Great! But I still have just one, slight problem…"

"You mean like trying to convince an angry, relentless sylveon that you'll have to delay taking her aging master's place again?"

"Um, yeah, actually. How did you-?" Vanilla felt panic rising up his spine. "She's right behind me, isn't she?"

"Yep…" Was all Chocola could confirm before her friend found himself wrapped up in some pink, fleshy ribbons. "Good morning, Lady Cordon!"

"Why good morning to you too, Miss Chocola. It's been a while!" the sylveon said with a smile that seemed to completely disregard the eevee's struggling. "I hope this one wasn't causing too much trouble. You know how boys are…"

"Not as much as I'd like…" Chocola said under her breath.

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that?"

"Oh, um, I was just wondering if you would be so kind as to help carry everything back to the house. I'm still recovering from the, uh, yeah…"

"Certainly. It's the least I could do for a little hero such as yourself." Lady Cordon agreed, while continuing to disregard the fact that her captive was just as, if not more, deserving of the title.

* * *

The trip to Chocola's house had been quiet and slow. The vixen returned safely, Lady Cordon turned to leave just as Vanilla managed to free himself from her grasp, if only his muzzle. "Lady Cordon, please wait. I haven't really had a chance to talk with her since the battle, can't I at least say goodbye?"

"Very well. I'll allow it" The sylveon acknowledged before setting the eevee down on the ground, yet remaining only a single pace away.

Chocola cleared her throat in a way that suggested she wanted a little more privacy than that.

"Fine. I shall leave you two be. For now. But mark my words, if you try to flee again, I will find you, and I will return you to your duties…" Lady Cordon finished with a tone that made it so no-one could mistake her threat for anything else.

"No worries, Ma'am. I won't let him get away!" Chocola said as she waved the sylveon off. "Wow, she is pretty intense isn't she?"

"She's just doing what she thinks is best."

Chocola just raised her and eyebrow in protest.

"Okay, fine. But things are pretty hectic right now. I promise she'll calm down once everything starts finding a sort of order again. I think…" Vanilla added.

"It won't matter if you're not able to visit once and a while."

"You could always come and visit me. Once you're better, I mean. I know my parents would love to have you over again!"

"I'll consider it…" Chocola teased, knowing full well that she was relishing the thought of saving him for a change.

"Well then, I'd best be off. It looks like she's getting impatient."

Chocola had to suppress the urge to stick out her tongue at the fairy-type. "Well, I guess you shouldn't keep her waiting…"

After a quick, gentle hug, Vanilla turned to submit himself to his captor.

"Wait! I almost forgot!" Chocola announced, stopping the eevee in his tracks.

"Oh?"

"I've been meaning to ask you, since you haven't really told anyone else about it, what did Giratina say to you?"

Vanilla tilted his head in confusion.

"I-I won't tell anyone, if that's what you're worried about. I swear."

Vanilla sighed. "No, it's not that…"

"Well then? Why won't you tell me?"

"Truthfully? Giratina never said a word to me." The eevee admitted.

Chocola scoffed. "Fine, don't tell me. But you don't have to be mean about it!"

"No," Vanilla protested, "I'm being serious. There wasn't a telepathic link or anything. That's why I haven't told anyone. I didn't have anything to say."

"Then why'd he leave? Why did he come all this way and not imprison Dialga and Palkia again?"

"Honestly, when he was staring at me, or rather, staring _through_ me, I felt that, well, he understood. That this whole thing was a big mistake, and that those two were deeply sorry for their actions and were willing to do anything to right their wrongs, even if there was nothing they could do to fix them. In that moment, we shared an understanding that couldn't be conveyed through language alone."

Chocola breathed in and exhaled slowly. That was a lot to take in, and she wasn't quite sure how she felt about the revelation. But there was one thing she was sure of. "I believe you, Vanilla. I always will."

Vanilla only hugged her again. "Thanks, Chocola. I couldn't ask for anything else."

"Alright, you two have had enough time to say goodbye." Lady Cordon interrupted. "We have things to do. Vanilla, and pokemon to see." She declared as she encircled him with her ribbons once more, not because she feared that he would get away, but more because she knew he didn't like it. "Come on now."

"We'll meet again soon, Chocola! I promise!" Vanilla shouted as he attempted to wave his final goodbye with his one free paw.

Chocola returned it with a smile on her face. As soon as she was better, she'd see to it that nothing kept them apart. She would only have to wait a few more days…

~~The End~~


End file.
